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CONSIDERATIONS ON 
ETERNITY 



FROM THE LATIN OF 

JEREMIAS DREXELIUS, S.J. 

TRANSLATED BY 

SISTER MARIE JOSE BYRNE 

EDITED BY 

REV. FERDINAND E. BOGNER 



FREDERICK PUSTET CO. (Inc.) 

NEW YORK CINCINNATI 

1920 



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>^ Patrick J. Hayes, D. D. 

Archbishop of New York 



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EDITOR'S PREFACE 

THIS preface will not begin with an apology 
for the publication of another book on eter- 
nity. For no apology is needed. Anything 
that will lead men to think of their eternal destiny 
should be accorded a welcome. I was told, only a 
short time ago, "there is too much eternity, eter- 
nity, about this book." But how can this be true 
when we are all rushing on to eternity, and always 
liable to be seduced by the devil into the eternity 
of the damned? Failure to reflect on eternity has 
at all times in man's history been a fundamental 
cause of sin. There are always many, alas too 
many, who, if they do not actually deny an eternal 
life, yet live as if they had no belief in it. "In all 
thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt 
never sin" (Ecclus. vii. 40). The consideration of 
eternity is as necessary in one age as in another. 
The present day is no exception. "With desolation 
is all the land made desolate; because there is none 
that considereth in the heart." (Jer. xii. 11.) God 
has prepared for the good an eternal reward, and 
for the wicked an eternal punishment.. "Come, ye 
blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom pre- 
pared for you from the foundation of the world." 



vi EDITOR'S PREFACE 

(Mat. XXV. 34.) ^'Depart from me, you cursed, into 
everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and 
his angels" (Mat. xxv. 41). These are the words of 
Christ Who is to come to judge both the living and 
the dead. Is it not worth our while to meditate 
and reflect upon them? 

Most Catholic homes are too poorly equipped 
with Catholic books treating of man's deepest con- 
cerns. And what can be of deeper concern to a 
man than how he shall spend eternity? "For what 
doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, 
and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what ex- 
change shall a man give for his soul?" (Mat. 
xvi. 26.) We of this day need the spiritual strength 
to be derived from such a book as this to resist the 
frivolous and sinful tendencies that threaten to 
carry us away. 

Dear Reader, you and I, willing or unwilling, are 
one day to be ushered into the realm of eternity. 
We know what it is. God, the infallible Truth, has 
declared it to us in immistakable language. Re- 
flect seriously, then, on the considerations here pre- 
sented. Learn to love this book. Let it be a 
fountain from which you will drink often. It will 
help you to gain eternal life, to escape eternal 
death. You may not find it necessary to inform you 
of the struggle waged by the Powers of Darkness 
against the Powers of Light for the possession of 
your soul. But you will find it an encouragement 



EDITOR'S PREFACE vii 

to put all your strength on the side of the Powers of 
Light. 

^'Considerations on Eternity/' the work of the 
learned Jeremias Drexelius, S. J., is a classic on the 
subject. The praise and gratitude of Catholics are 
due to Sister Marie Jose Byrne for this new and 
excellent translation. 

Ferdinand E. Bogner. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Consideration I: What is Eternity? 1-17 

I. Various Notions and Symbols of the 

Ancients Regarding Eternity 3 

II. The Secret Meaning of Scripture Re- 
vealed II 

III. Why the Place of Eternity is Called a 

Mansion 15 

Consideration II: In What Things Nature 

Represents Eternity 18-32 

I. What Things are Eternal in Hell? 20 

II. Why Hell is Eternal 26 

III. Other Objects by Which Nature Suggests 

Eternity 29 

Consideration III: In What Especially the 
Ancient Romans Made Eternity to 

Consist 33-61 

I. How Far the Romans Strayed from the 

True Road of Eternity 41 

II. A Way to Eternity Better than the Former 47 
III. This Way must be Earnestly Sought 55 

Consideration IV: How David Meditated 
ON Eternity and What is the Means 

OF Imitating Him in This 62-80 

I. Various Admonitions to Think on Eternity 65 
II. Eternity Exceeds all Arithmetical Numbers 

and Laws 70 

III. Effects of Meditating on Eternity 75 

ix 



X CONTENTS 

Consideration V: How Even Some Wicked 

People Meditated on Eternity 81-96 

I. The Labors of Man and Those of the 

Spider Compared 86 

II. What is the Most Important Question in 

the World 89 

Consideration VI: How the Holy Fathers, 
THE Church, and the Scriptures In- 
sist on the Necessity of Meditating 
ON Eternity 97-120 

I. Answers of the Holy Fathers and the 

Church on this Subject 99 

II. The Clear Testimony of the Inspired Writ- 
ings on Eternity 109 

III. All Things Except Eternity Last but for 

a Little "WTiile 113 

Consideration VII: How Christians Repre- 
sent Eternity 121-139 

I. Christ Inviting 123 

II. Adam Lamenting 125 

III. The Raven Croaking 129 

Consideration VIII: How Eternity is not 
so much to be Represented as Medi- 
tated upon by Christians 140-158 

I. Eternity Cuts off not only the Actual 
Possession of Earthly Goods, but also 

All Hope of Possessing Them 143 

II. Eternity is a Sea, a Three-headed Hydra, 

but also the Fountain of all Joy 146 

HI. The Great Value of a Relish for Eternity 

is Made Clear by an Illustrious Example 149 



CONTENTS xi 

Consideration IX: Some Conclusions 
Drawn from What has been Said on 

Eternity 159-208 

I. The Punishment of Eternal Death 177 

II. The Reward of Eternal Life 185 

III. Epilogue to All That has been Said 194 



Considerations on Eternity 

Consideration I 
WHAT IS ETERNITY? 

CICERO (De Nat. Deer. I, 22, 60) tells us 
that when Simonides was asked by Hiero, 
King of Sicily, what God is, he requested 
one day for the consideration of the question. When 
that day had passed, he said that the matter was 
not yet clear to him, and desired two days more for 
the same deliberation. These two days also hav- 
ing elapsed, he demanded three. Finally he made 
this reply only: the more he thought on the sub- 
ject, the more it seemed to him deserving of thought; 
less and less clear did the matter appear to him, the 
longer he labored in its consideration. As we set 
about to meditate on eternity, the first question that 
presents itself for investigation is this: What is eter- 
nity? Boethius (De Consolat. Bk. V, Prosa 6) 
says that it is the entire and at the same time the 
perfect possession of everlasting life. No one will 
take exception if we say that this cannot be known, 
and that the more it is examined, the more there 
remains to be examined. For how can that be de- 
fined which has no limits? 



2 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

But if any one should insist, and desire even a 
shadowy outhne, we think that this can be given 
more easily by negation than by affirmation. Thus, 
Plato in the "Timaeus" says of God: ^^I do not 
know what God is; I know what He is not.'' Thus 
also, St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (Serm. 64 De 
Verbis Domini), describes that true beatitude which 
obtains among the heavenly beings by removing 
from it all notion of evil. ^^More easily,'' he says, 
^^do we discover what is not there than what is." 
In heaven there is no pain, no sadness, no poverty, 
no weakness, no disease, no death, no evil. We can 
speak in similar terms about eternity; for, whatever 
we see in this life and perceive by our exterior senses 
is not eternal. "For the things which are seen," 
says St. Paul, "are temporal; but the things which 
are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. IV, 18). Accord- 
ingly, we may say: "This joy of mine, this pleasure 
and delight, this treasure, this honor, this proud 
edifice, this life of mine, are transient and perishable, 
they are not eternal." In what direction soever we 
turn our finger, we point to things that will perish. 

Such expressions as these are common: "This 
structure is eternal; this monument immortal." So, 
also, the impatient man complains that his suffer- 
ings are eternal. But too short are these eternities 
which it is easy to comprise in words; whatever we 
say about the real eternity we shall understate. St. 
Augustine says: "You may say whatever you wish 



CONSIDERATION I 3 

about eternity; and for this reason you may say it, 
because whatever you say you state less than the 
reaHty. But you must necessarily say something, 
that you may have some foundation for meditating 
on that which cannot be expressed" (In Ps. LXIII). 
Trismegistus in his "Asclepius" says: "The soul is 
the horizon between eternity and time; for inasmuch 
as it is immortal, it participates in eternity; but 
inasmuch as it has been infused by God in the 
body, it participates in time." 

But before we go further, let us, for the sake of 
preserving order, see what men of ancient times, 
the Romans, Greeks, Eg3T)tians and others, thought 
about eternity. They certainly recognized it and 
described it in various ways. 



VARIOUS NOTIONS AND SYMBOLS OF THE ANCIENTS 
REGARDING ETERNITY 

In the first place the ancients represented eter- 
nity by a ring or circle, which is without beginning 
and end: in no part of itself does it begin, in no 
part end, which is a characteristic of divine eter- 
nity. Thus, since God is eternal and His continu- 
ous existence is properly called eternity, to the Egyp- 
tians a circle symbolized God. The Persians for- 
merly believed that they were showing God the 



4 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

highest possible honors, when they climbed a very 
lofty tower and invoked Him as the circle of the 
heavens. And it is set down in the customs of the 
Turks (as Pierius explains somewhat fully) that 
the following proclamation was shouted early in the 
morning from a very high watch tower: ^^God always 
was and always will be''; and that at the same time 
they saluted their own Mahomet. The Saracens 
also called God a circle. 

That well known Mercurius Trismegistus, whom I 
have mentioned (and who wrote more books than 
any other man, if we believe Seleucus and Menae- 
cus), said that God is an intellectual sphere, whose 
centre is everywhere, whose circumference is no- 
where, because nowhere do the majesty and immens- 
ity of God terminate. For this reason the ancients 
built round temples to their gods. Thus, Nimia 
Pompilius is said to have consecrated at Rome a 
round temple to Vesta. Thus, also, Augustus Caesar 
is said to have dedicated in the name of Agrippa a 
round-shaped temple to all the gods and to have 
named it the Pantheon. Hence, too, Pythagoras, 
in order that he might show that God is eternal, 
commanded that his disciples adore Him by a circu- 
lar motion of the body. It was also ordained by 
Numa, according to the testimony of Brissonius, that 
those about to worship should turn round in a circle. 
Therefore, according to the ancients God is a circle, 
but a circle without periphery or circumference. 



CONSIDERATION I 5 

whose centre is everywhere, since God is at the same 
time the beginning and end of all things. Most 
justly does Job exclaim: ^'Behold God is great, ex- 
ceeding our knowledge; the number of His years is 
inestimable" (Job XXXVI, 26). 

Secondly, the ancients represented eternity by a 
isphere and a globe. Thus, a coin was struck in 
honor of the Empress Faustina with the following 
form and image: The empress was seated upon a 
globe, stretching forth one hand and holding a 
sceptre in the other; the inscription on the coin 
was ETERNITY.* Heucc many of the ancients be- 
lieved that the world because it was round was 
eternal; to whom St. Basil fittingly replies: 
^'Granted that the world is round, yet the beginning 
of a circle is the centre." 

Thirdly, to the ancients eternity was symbolized 
by a chair, by which they signified eternal rest. 
The Nasamones, a people of Africa, usually not only 
died seated, but also wished to be buried in this 
posture, as if they had already reached eternity 
and that long cessation from labors. So, sometimes 
even today kings and emperors are buried in sub- 

* The figure here described is not that of the Empress, but the 
personified conception of ^ternitas (eternity). Such personifica- 
tion of abstract qualities was common among the Romans, and 
many examples of it occur on coins: e.g. Pax, Abundantia, 
Providentia, Pudicitia, Laetitia. Another coin of the same 
Faustina bears on the obverse a profile portrait of the Empress 
and on the reverse a figure of Pietas sacrificing at an altar. — Tr. 



6 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

terranean vaults, seated in silent and mournful 
majesty. It was also a practice among the Romans 
to support metal statues of their dead emperors on 
chairs of like material, since they were now in the 
enjoyment of eternity. 

There are men who frequently reason thus with 
themselves: ^^Behold, since I am so long a time 
sorely hampered and crushed by cares and labors, 
why do I not take a respite? why not pause a little? 
why not end these long and troublesome labors? 
Long enough have I labored; let others, too, labor 
as much as I. Therefore, I shall now rest and 
cease." And so these men set chairs for them- 
selves and proclaim holidays, but which, alas, will not 
be of long duration! They place a chair, they 
eagerly seek rest, but neither in the proper place nor 
at the proper time. How truly and how solemnly 
does that golden book, "The Imitation of Christ," 
din these words in our ears: "Dispose and order 
all things according as thou wilt and as seems 
best to thee, and thou wilt still find something to 
suffer, either willingly or unwillingly; and so thou 
shalt always find the cross"; and "The whole life 
of Christ was a cross and a martyrdom; and dost 
thou seek for thyself rest and joy?" (Imit. Christ. 
Bk. II, Ch. 12.) Therefore, our chair must be 
placed in heaven, not here. In the midst of so many 
disturbances it will not stand unmoved ; and though 
all other things should spare this chair^ death will 



CONSIDERATION I 7 

finally overturn it. No true rest is to be hoped for 
but that which is eternal. Nevertheless, if there 
is any rest in this life it will be this: to commit one's 
whole self and all one's possessions entirely to God 
and the will of God, to trust entirely to Him, to 
consider all other things as vain. Thus for our 
instruction Ecclesiasticus says: ^'Trust in God and 
stay in thy place" (Ecclus. XI, 22). Apart from 
this peace of mind there are only troubles, only a sea 
and mighty waves, and a hell on earth. But let 
us return to the ancients. 

Fourthly, eternity was shadowed forth by the sun 
and moon according to the ancients. The sun 
always comes to life again, although it seems to die 
daily and to bury itself; it always rises again, 
although it daily declines and sets. So also the 
moon always increases and waxes after its monthly 
waning. Well does Catullus say (Carm. V, 4-6) : — 

The suns may sink to rest and rise again: 
But we, when once our too brief light has set, 
Through one unending night fore'er must sleep. 

In hell this night will certainly be eternal, but with- 
out sleep. There none sleep, because they have 
slept here when they should have watched. There 
then they watch after a short sleep in their sins, 
which they themselves, had they been able, would 
have made very long, nay eternal. Far different is 
the case in heaven. The Church sings of the 



8 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

martyrs of Christ: "Perpetual light will shine upon 
Thy saints, and eternal ages will be theirs. Here 
is rest, here delight, after labors and watches of no 
long duration." 

Fifthly, eternity was symbolized to the ancients 
by the basilisk. This is the most poisonous of all 
animals, and the only one, according to Horus 
Niliacus, that cannot be killed by human power and 
might. Indeed, so virulent is it, that it kills plants 
by its breath alone, puts other animals to flight 
even by its hiss, and causes birds to become silent 
as soon as it is heard approaching. Aelian relates 
that in the desert of Africa a beast of burden had 
died, and around its corpse, as at a banquet, several 
serpents had gathered; but driven away merely by 
the hiss of a basilisk, they hid themselves in the 
sand. Eternity, which will be passed either in joys 
or in torments, can be shortened and lessened by no 
one, much less abolished or avoided. Not strange 
is it then, if all who possess right reason are terri- 
fied by meditating upon it even slightly. Infinite 
are the coils of this basilisk; immense and inextri- 
cable its rings and windings. Ah, terrible dragon! 

Here let us turn to ourselves for a short time. 
It sometimes happens, when a man looks into him- 
self and examines his conscience for the purpose 
of making confession, that he finds teeming nests 
of serpents and whole swarms of vipers, and he 
wonders within himself, saying: "Pray, whence so 



CONSIDERATION I 9 

much poison in my heart? Whence so many fat 
serpents, so many grievous, so many mortal sins? 
Whence so great a throng of Uzards, whence so 
many base and Hcentious thoughts? I myself shud- 
der at so numerous a pest." Be not surprised; we 
shall easily reveal the cause of the trouble. A 
damp and neglected place is excellently suited to 
generate serpents. Behold then the double cause: 
the moisture of the place, and the negligence of 
those who ought to care for it. It is precisely the 
same in the human soul: if almost all one's care is 
spent upon the body, if it is treated delicately, 
nourished sumptuously, sated with dainties, soothed 
with pleasures, we must admit that the soul which 
inhabits it dwells in moisture. If to this are added 
carelessness and neglect of heavenly things; if 
scarcely any thought of salvation is entertained, 
provided only the body be safe and in good con- 
dition, whatever becomes of the soul; if, finally, 
confession is infrequent and generally perfunctory, 
what wonder that many serpents are produced here, 
many deadly faults are found? But, my Christian 
friend, send this basilisk into your heart, admit the 
thought of eternity, and you will perceive that 
these poisonous beasts will gradually vanish. You 
yourself admit that your heart swarms with these 
serpents; therefore, it is a sign that heretofore you 
have rarely or never thought of eternity. Amend, 
and even now begin constantly to revolve this 



10 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

thought in your mind: ^^Momentary is that which 
delights, eternal that which tortures." 

Sixthly, eternity was depicted in the following 
manner. There was represented an immense and 
terrible cave, which was encompassed by a serpent 
holding its tail in its mouth. At the right of the 
cave stood a youth of beautiful and ruddy counte- 
nance, having in his right hand a bow and two 
arrows, and in his left a harp. Opposite him, at 
the very entrance of the cave, sat an old man, who, 
fixing an attractive gaze upon a tablet, kept writing 
whatever was indicated either by the movement of 
a celestial globe or by the youth standing near. 
At the left of the cave sat a gray-haired matron 
with animated countenance. At the door of the 
cave was an ascent of four steps, the first of iron, 
the second of bronze, the third of silver, the fourth 
of gold. Playing and romping on these some chil- 
dren moved here and there, fearless of falling and 
of dangers. Such is the picture; its meaning is as 
follows: The cave signifies the incomprehensibility 
of eternity; the serpent enfolding its circumference, 
time; the youth, God, in whose hand are heaven, 
earth and hell: earth and hell receive the arrows of 
the Divinity; heaven knows only the harp and joys. 
The old man signifies destiny, or what God has pre- 
destined from eternity; the woman, nature; the 
separate steps, the sepaTate a^^^es and centuries. The 
children playing on the steps symbolize created 



CONSIDERATION I ii 

things, especially man, trifling in the affairs of his 
salvation and jesting at the very entrance to eter- 
nity. 

Alas, O mortals, long enough have we trifled in 
the midst of the very greatest dangers; we are very 
near eternity, we stand on its threshold while we live. 
By the very slight movement of death we are 
engulfed in eternity. It is not necessary that death 
fight against us with great strength or for a long 
time: in a moment we are precipitated, and we roll 
from these steps into the ocean of eternity. Con- 
sider, you who are amusing yourselves on these steps 
and who think of all else but eternity, that perhaps 
today or tomorrow you will be there. 



II 

THE SECRET MEANING OF SCRIPTURE REVEALED 

The sacred pages will not inaptly supplement with 
divine truth the foregoing chapter on symbols and 
types of eternity. 

When Nabuchodonosor, King of Babylon, had 
ordered the three Hebrew youths who had refused 
to comply with his impious commands to be cast 
into the burning furnace, the flame over the furnace 
arose forty-nine cubits — a circumstance altogether 
wonderful and not without a certain mystery. Who 
so accurately measured the soaring height of a most 



12 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

devouring flame? Who ascended thither and ap- 
plied a measuring rule, and detected not fifty cubits, 
but only forty-nine? Indeed, we are not accus- 
tomed to speak thus; we usually count twenty, 
thirty, or fifty cubits, even though the actual num- 
ber is somewhat more or less. Here a single cubit 
is said to be lacking for the number fifty. The 
mystery and secret meaning is this: the number fifty 
formerly signified a jubilee; but the flames in that 
Babylonian region of death, although they prey 
upon both body and soul above all measure, and 
increase exceedingly beyond all the torments of 
this life, nevertheless never reach the point of at- 
taining the grace of a jubilee. In hell there is no 
jubilee, no pardon, no end of torments. A jubilee at 
present consists, not of a hundred or of fifty years, 
but of single days, hours, moments. A fraction of 
an hour can now obtain that pardon which there 
a whole eternity cannot gain. Now one short day 
can pay more debts than whole years or centuries in 
the avenging fires. 

Let us add to the above another exposition of 
the inspired pages. When the people of God were 
crossing the Jordan, the lower waters flowed down 
into the sea of desolation (which is now called the 
Dead Sea) until they completely failed; and Ec- 
clesiasticus says: ^^There is one that buyeth much 
for a small price'^ (Ecclus. XX, 12). Galfridus 
unites these two statements and discourses thus upon 



CONSIDERATION I 13 

them: "If you are deserving of perpetual affliction 
and you can escape it by accepting temporal afflic- 
tion instead, you have certainly bought great things 
at a small price. I admit, it is a sea on which you 
are sailing, but a dead sea; and how great grati- 
tude do you owe to God, because you had deserved 
a briny, raging, impassable sea, and behold, this He 
has mercifully changed for you into a dead sea. 
O that you may be able to pass over this dead sea 
into the land of the living!" This writer compares 
all the adversities of this life to a dead sea, but 
eternal punishments to a briny and impassable sea. 
No one can escape both; each must traverse either 
the one or the other. "What are you doing, O 
man?" exclaims St. Chrysostom. "You are prepar- 
ing to ascend to heaven, and you ask that you 
nowhere encounter any difficulty." Whatever we 
do, this dead sea must be crossed. It depends on 
us whether we wish to land in the peaceful harbor 
of beatitude. "The word of God on high is the 
fountain of wisdom, and her ways are everlasting 
commandments" (Ecclus. I, 5). No other way lies 
open over this dead sea to the region of the living 
than the way of the commandments of God. We 
have the clearest oracle: "If thou wilt enter into 
life, keep the commandments" (Matt. XIX, 17). 
Through these confines is eternity approached. 

But if the question "What is eternity?" be put to 
a theologian of the present age (Cornelius a Lapide), 



14 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

he will say: ^^It is a circle returning upon itself, 
whose centre is Always, whose circumference is 
Nowhere; that is, it never ends." 

What is eternity? It is an orb, round on all 
sides, and like unto itself, in which there is no 
beginning and no end. 

What is eternity? A wheel which is always re- 
volving and will revolve, rolling on into every age. 

What is eternity? A year continually recurring; 
where it dies and perishes, there it is reborn and 
begins again. 

What is eternity? An ever-flowing fountain, in 
which the waters in their winding courses always flow 
back to their source, that they may issue forth again. 

What is eternity? A perennial spring, sending 
forth never-failing waters, but either the sweetest 
waters of benediction, or the bitterest waters of male- 
diction. 

What is eternity? A labyrinth twisting itself into 
innumerable curves, which continually leads through 
many windings those who have entered it, and finally 
ruins them. 

What is eternity? It is an abyss of spirals and 
windings; it is a spiral ever curving and circling over 
a boundless expanse. 

What is eternity? A serpent bending back upon 
itself with its coils, holding its tail in its mouth; 
which in its own end always begins again and will 
never cease to begin. 



CONSIDERATION I 15 

What is eternity? It is duration ever present, 
it is one perpetual Today, which does not go over 
into the past or the future. 

What is eternity? It is the age of ages, says 
Dionysius (De Divinis Nominibus, Ch. 10), which 
does not perish, but maintains itself always in the 
same way. 

What is eternity? It is a beginning without be- 
ginning, without middle, without end. It is a begin- 
ning ever interminable and always beginning, in 
which the blessed continually enter upon a blessed 
life and perpetually abound with new delights; in 
which the damned always die, and after all death 
and the struggle of death again begin continually 
to die and to struggle with death. As long as God 
will be God, so long will the blessed be blessed, so 
long will they reign and triumph; so long will 
the damned endure unspeakable burnings and cry 
out: ^We are tormented in this flame," only to be 
tormented and tortured eternally. 



Ill 

WHY THE PLACE OF ETERNITY IS CALLED A MANSION 

John, Patriarch of Alexandria, a man of eminent 
piety, frequently visited the sick, and on one occa- 
sion had as a companion Troilus, a bishop, who loved 
money more than he did the sick. John whispered 



1 6 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

in his ear: ^^Come, brother, let us aid the friends 
of Christ." Hereupon Troilus, being crafty and 
cleverly concealing the disease of his soul, ordered 
all the money which his servant was then carrying 
with him for the purchase of other things to be given 
to the needy. Not long after this he was seized 
with a fever, which avarice had produced in him. 
The patriarch of Alexandria heard of this, and hav- 
ing shrewdly surmised the cause of the disease, 
brought with him to the fever-stricken man as much 
silver as had lately been distributed among the sick, 
and in the course of conversation said: "I was jest- 
ing when a short time ago I asked from you an alms 
for the sick since my servant had none with him. 
Now in good faith I return to you the borrowed 
philippi, and thank you.'' When Troilus beheld 
the ready money, immediately that obliging fever 
ceased, its heat abated, and everything seemed 
brighter. Accordingly, Troilus having regained his 
strength, arose for dinner, and together they went 
to table. Later when dinner was over Troilus fell 
asleep at home and enjoyed a mid-day nap, during 
which he saw in a dream a very spacious house and 
on its front over the door an inscription: ^^Eternal 
mansion and rest of Bishop Troilus." He rejoiced 
in this dream, but afterwards he had another which 
caused him grief. There came a man who, bear- 
ing his works with him, said in a tone of stern 
command: "Remove that inscription from the house 



CONSIDERATION I 17 

and fasten up this one in its place: ^Eternal mansion 
and rest of John, Archbishop of Alexandria, pur- 
chased for thirty pounds of silver.' " Troilus shud- 
dered at this dream and resolved that it should not 
be without good effect. Accordingly, from avari- 
cious and harsh he became much more liberal, es- 
pecially toward the poor: such a change did that 
eternal mansion, seen only in sleep, produce in him. 

O blessed mansions, and blessed for the reason 
that they are eternal! How Christ desires that we 
despise our tents and huts, which are destined 
shortly to crumble, and love and hasten to those 
eternal mansions! "In my Father's house," says 
He, "there are many mansions" (John XIV, 12). 
No one is debarred from these except by himself; 
the place excludes no one, being as widely exten- 
sive as possible; time sends no one away, for there 
is there an abiding, and an abiding that is eternal. 

O eternal, merciful God! O eternal truth! O 
true charity! O dear ternity! So heal our blind- 
ness that from present brief sufferings we may under- 
stand future, horrible, eternal torments. Lead us 
and teach us, that we may so possess perishable 
goods as not to lose the eternal; that we may so 
grieve over faults committed as to escape eternal 
punishment; that we may so conduct ourselves in the 
inn of this life as not to be debarred from the eternal 
mansions; that we may so advance along our journey 
as not to be excluded from our country. 



Consideration II 

IN WHAT THINGS NATURE REPRESENTS 
ETERNITY 

EVEN idolaters, as we have seen, recognized 
what the nature of eternity was and repre- 
sented it by certain symbols; for '^God hath 
manifested it imto them, so that they are inexcus- 
able" (Rom. I, 19, 20). How much more ought 
this thought to commend itself to Christians, to 
whom eternity is represented in a manner far differ- 
ent and better. Wherefore you are inexcusable, 
O man, who consign this most salutary remembrance 
of eternity to heedless forgetfulness, even though 
thus reminded. Often before your eyes are rings 
and circles, spheres and globes, chairs and couches; 
sun and moon repeatedly meet your gaze. And the 
sight of these things forces upon you the remem- 
brance of eternity. But even Nature herself, a good 
mother, places in full view objects of such a kind 
that by the sight and hearing of them you are invited 
to meditate on eternity. 

Solinus relates that a stone of Arcadia, called 
asbestos, when it has received the seeds of flame, 
burns with almost continual fires. For this reason 

18 



CONSIDERATION II 19 

lamps used at shrines and tombs were in former 
times made of it. This fact is also mentioned by 
St. Augustine. Furthermore, Pliny, Volateranus, 
Dioscoris and several others relate wonderful things 
about a certain kind of linen. This has various 
names, for it is called asbestian, Carystian, Indian, 
and also live linen. It is not only not consumed by 
jfire, but is washed and dried by it. Therefore, when 
the bodies of several kings were about to be placed 
upon the pyre and burned, they were wrapped in 
this linen, to avoid mingling their ashes and to dis- 
tinguish them one from the other. Nero had a 
mantle made of it, which he esteemed more precious 
than gems and gold. Behold nature, your guide 
and teacher, who points out clearly that she does not 
find her own death in fire. So all the damned will 
be on fire and will not be destroyed; they will burn 
perpetually and will never be consumed; they will 
seek death in these flames and will not find it. 
Rightly does Amandus exclaim: "O wretched eter- 
nity, never to have an end! O end without end; 
death more grievous than all death; always to die 
and never to be able to die!" So the inspired Isaias 
says: "Their fire shall never be quenched" (Isai. 
LXVI, 24); and that angel of the Apocalypse: 
"They shall desire to die, and death shall fly from 
them" (Apoc. IX, 6). 

That the salamander can maintain life in the fire, 
for some time at least, is believed by St. Augustine, 



2 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

as well as by Aristotle, Pliny, Galen, Aelian, and 
Dioscoris. This animal, produced from moisture, 
is very cold; sun and dryness cause its death; hence, 
in flames, according to the opinion of Pliny, it retains 
the coldness of ice. From its skin are made lamps 
for the purpose of providing ever burning lights. 
The good God, who produces the salamander from 
earth and mud, formed man also from the same 
matter it is true, but with a nature far nobler. '^He 
made him a little less than the angels'' (Ps. VIII, 6). 
At any rate he has destined for him the same king- 
dom as for the angels, after he has passed through 
the probationary period of this life. But "man 
when he was in honor did not imderstand; he is 
compared to senseless beasts, and is become like to 
them'' (Ps. XLVIII, 13). By his own malice he has 
made himself like a salamander, either to live for- 
ever or to die forever in eternal flames. 

In those fiery prisons of hell all things are eter- 
nal, yet six are especially deserving of consideration. 



I 

WHAT THINGS ARE ETERNAL IN HELL? 

First, the damned soul itself is eternal, immortal. 
No one will be able to destroy another or himself. 
"They shall seek death and shall not find it" (Apoc. 
IX, 6). Nay, this very desire of death will be for 



CONSIDERATION II 21 

them a mighty torment, because they will know that 
it can never be realized. 

Secondly, the prison is eternal: it cannot fall, 
it cannot be broken open, it cannot be melted 
away; it is barred with mountains and rocks, and 
these bars and barriers are so firm that they will 
afford egress to none. If any one of the damned 
comes to us from there before the day of judgment, 
this happens by the permission of God; but he 
carries around with him his own hell and is not free 
from torture. 

There arises here a discussion of two theologians, 
which is no idle one, about the location and place of 
bodies in hell. One of them, who was also a skilled 
geometrician, reasoned in this wise: It is certain 
from the words of Christ that the majority of men 
are lost, so that there will be few of the blessed in 
comparison with the incredible number of the 
damned. These are the words of truth: ^^Enter ye 
in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and 
broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and 
many there are who go in thereat. Hov/ narrow is 
the gate and strait is the way that leadeth to Hfe, 
and few there are that find it" (Matt. VII, 13-14). 
Pray tell me, is this believed in the world? Are 
these thought to be the words of Christ? 

But to return to my subject: the middle and 
centre of the earth is the abode of hell, and how 
could this contain so many millions of men, unless 



22 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

we say that there body is penetrated by body? This 
is not necessary, says the other, but they shall be as 
fish in a jar, which are so tightly packed together 
that salt only can be placed between them; so is 
fire between the damned. Or they shall be as bricks 
in a lime-kiln, one closely pressed upon the other, 
while the force of the flame penetrates all. Sacred 
Scripture clearly agrees with this, but by a different 
simile: ^They are laid in hell like sheep: death 
shall feed upon them" (Ps. XLVIII, 15). They 
shall be like sheep, not in the pastures, but in the 
market-place, already strangled and thrown into 
one heap. 

Thirdly, not less eternal is that fire which no 
lapse of time will extinguish. Christ gives this very 
clear warning in St. Matthew: ^^Depart from Me, 
you cursed, into everlasting fire" (Matt. XXV, 41). 
Do you hear that word "everlasting"? The divine 
wrath feeds this fire, which will never die out. 
Isaias testifies: "The breath of the Lord is as a 
torrent of brimstone kindling it; night and day it 
shall not be quenched; the smoke thereof shall go 
up forever" (Isai. XXX, 33 ; XXIV, 10) . "Equally 
related," says St. Augustine, "are eternal punish- 
ment on the one hand, and eternal life on the 
other. Therefore to say 'Eternal life will be with- 
out end, and eternal punishment have an end' is the 
height of absurdity" (De Civ. Dei XXI, 23). Who 
then will hesitate to be wholly converted? 



CONSIDERATION II 23 

Fourthly, equally eternal with the rest is the 
worm and a conscience most afflicted and despairing 
on account of its past life. ^^Their worm shall not 
die" predicts Isaias (LXVI, 24). The poets in 
former times transferred this belief from the Sacred 
Writings to myths. For what else is symbolized by 
Vergil in the well known story of Tityus, who daily 
suffered the vulture that flew up to him to gnaw out 
and lacerate his liver; which, however, always grew 
again on the following night for a new rending? 
What else is this vulture but that worm and a con- 
science torn by perpetual remorse? 

Fifthly, to this same eternity of hell belong the 
final sentence and the last judgment pronounced 
upon all by Christ, the Judge, a judgment, alas, 
irrevocable, immutable, eternal. From it there will 
be no appeal or recourse to another judge, where the 
case can be repeated two or three times in the pres- 
ence of skilled lawyers; there will be no revision, 
no postponements or compromises. What has once 
been pronounced by the mouth of this Judge cannot 
be revoked for all eternity. Our mother, the 
Church, earnestly warns us and frequently repeats 
(Offic. Mort. Noct. 3): "The fear of death troubles 
me, sinning daily and not repenting, because in hell 
there is no redemption," none, none, but only eternal 
despair. The Blood of Christ, shed ever anew on 
the Mount of Golgotha and most efficacious in mak- 
ing satisfaction, yet does not reach to the damned. 



24 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

"If/' says St. Bernard, "you do not believe that 
the yoke of the Lord, a yoke of penance, is sweet 
in itself, at least you are not ignorant that it is 
most sweet in comparison with that of which it is 
said: ^Depart into eternal fire.' " 

In the sixth place, a thing that is without end in 
hell is the pain of loss, as it is called, or the eternal 
privation of the divine vision, a privation which, 
together with all the other torments and pains of the 
damned, will have no end; for here there can be no 
satisfaction. And although these torments should 
endure several thousand million years, nevertheless 
not a single day, nay, not one short hour nor moment, 
will be granted for rest and breathing. There will 
be, indeed, variety and change of torments, but 
only causing greater pain and suffering. Christ most 
clearly forewarns more than once in St. Matthew: 
"The children of the kingdom shall be cast out into 
the exterior darkness: there shall be weeping and 
gnashing of teeth" (Matt. VIII, 12; XXII, 13; 
XXIV, 51); weeping in fire, gnashing of teeth in 
cold and ice. How, therefore, can a man so forget 
both himself and God, and how so degenerate into a 
beast, nay, rather become hardened into rock and 
stone, that, in reflecting upon those inexplicable and 
unspeakable tortures which will last for all eternity, 
he fears nothing, dreads nothing, does not say to 
himself: "In very fact I am on the road to eternity, 
and perhaps this road will shortly end; I am already 



CONSIDERATION II 25 

seated upon the steps of eternity; by the very light- 
est movement I shall be precipitated hence into a 
measureless abyss.'' And if it seems so distressing 
and intolerable to be wide awake for only one night, 
although on a soft bed, and to sigh and groan on 
account of pains in the head or other member, or on 
account of toothache or gall-stones; when the morn- 
ing, long in coming, can scarcely be waited for; when 
the sun seems to have stopped in its course; when 
one night seems a week, and nevertheless one lies 
upon feathers, and there is hope of a pleasanter day, 
and solace and relief from a physician are expected; 
ah, what will it be, day and night in the midst of 
flames for a thousand and a thousand and again 
a thousand years, to watch, to hunger, to thirst, to 
burn, to suffer extreme torture in all the members; 
to hope for no refreshment, not the least rest; to 
despair of all things, and thus to burn and be tor- 
tured through infinite myriads of ages, and to think 
that not only will there be no end of these things, 
but that it is not even possible to hope for any. 
^^There," says Thomas a Kempis, in the ^^Imitation 
of Christ" (Bk. I, Ch. 24), "one hour of punishment 
will be more grievous than a hundred years of the 
most bitter penance here. There will be no rest, no 
consolation for the damned.'' "O Lord, rebuke me 
not in Thy indignation, nor chastise me in Thy 
wrath" (Ps. VI, i). "The sins of my youth and my 
ignorance do not remember" (Ps. XXIV, 7). I 
perish unless Thou spare me, O God. 



26 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

II 

WHY HELL IS ETERNAL 

At this point there arises a question bearing on our 
subject, which is most deserving of everyone's at- 
tention; namely, how it is possible that that merci- 
ful and good God, whose mercy is above all His 
works, nevertheless most justly punishes for all eter- 
nity even one mortal sin, though committed in a 
moment and even in thought alone, so that it can 
never be sufficiently punished, and however many 
thousand years pass by, it can never be said: "Now 
this crime has been sufficiently punished, now this 
criminal has given satisfaction, now he has atoned 
for that evil thought by which he had offended 
God." Theologians teach that morose pleasure by 
itself constitutes mortal sin. They define that as 
morose pleasure, when anyone revolving in his mind 
an impure and licentious thought, has not indeed 
determined actually to commit what he is thinking 
about, but knowingly and deliberately lingers over 
that thought of his and takes delight in it. Has 
God, therefore, decreed eternal flames for a single 
thought? And what justice is this, to ordain eternal 
punishment for a momentary sin which injures no 
one? Why does the blessed David cry out: "Praise 
the Lord for He is good; for His mercy endureth 
forever" (Ps. CXXXV, i)? Why does he repeat 



CONSIDERATION II 27 

this twenty-seven times, if God is so severe? In 
reply to this St. Augustine, St. Gregory, St. Thomas 
Aquinas, and others say: In any mortal sin the 
guilt is of its nature infinite, because sin is an injury 
against the infinite majesty of God. They add this 
also: He who dies conscious of a mortal sin and does 
not grieve for having committed it, acts the same 
as if he had sinned eternally, if indeed he had been 
permitted to live eternally. He has lost, not the 
will to sin, but life, and would always sin if he were 
to live always; and so he has ceased, not to sin, but 
to live. Besides, this point, too, must be considered: 
A man who is damned, however much of his debts 
he pays, will yet never make satisfaction. For since 
he is not in God's grace, being His enemy, his 
payment is not worthy of acceptance, since the man 
himself is not acceptable. Such a man pays none 
of his debts, since he does nothing, but only suffers 
those pains with which he is afflicted against his 
will. The matter will be clearer from an example. 
Someone owes his neighbor a thousand philippi 
which he has borrowed from him, and puts his house 
under a perpetual mortgage, intending to make 
yearly payments. Within twenty years he pays his 
neighbor the same amount as he received from him. 
Is he therefore now free from all debt? Does 
nothing remain to be paid? Yes, the entire capital, 
which remains to be paid as completely as if nothing 
had yet been paid. For the law of these contracts 



2 8 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

is such that the capital of the specified sum always 
remains intact, although the yearly interest be regu- 
larly paid. Just so, whatever penalties the damned 
pay, they nevertheless do not free themselves of 
debt. They are eternal debtors, perpetual tax- 
payers to God. Isaias prophesies: ^'And your 
strength shall be as the ashes of tow, and your work 
as a spark; and both shall burn together, and there 
shall be none to quench it" (Isai. I, 31). 

Suetonius (Tib. 61) relates that as Tiberius Caesar 
was once examining prisoners, one of them asked 
for a speedy release from punishment. To whom 
the emperor replied: ^^Not yet have you been re- 
stored to favor." Christ, the most just judge, is 
not a tyrant, a Tiberius, yet if any of the damned, 
after a thousand years passed in the flames, should 
ask for a speedy death, Christ would make him the 
same reply: ^^Not yet have you been restored to 
favor." Should the soul make this same request 
after another thousand years, it will hear the same 
words: "Not yet have you been restored to favor." 
Should it offer this same petition after a hundred 
thousand years, there will be no other reply. Should 
it again present its request after several million 
years, Christ, the Judge, will always bring forward 
this same objection: "Not yet have you been re- 
stored to favor, nor shall you be. Once I wished 
to be reconciled; I offered you my grace thousands 
and thousands of times, but you rejected it. I 



CONSIDERATION II 29 

wished to be your friend, nay, your father, but you 
did not wish to be a son. I dissembled my wrath, 
I was silent, I waited forty, fifty, sixty years, if 
perchance you might change your disposition and 
your life, but no serious or persevering repentance 
followed. ^You have despised all my counsel, and 
have neglected my reprehensions' (Prov. I, 25); 
you have hated and shrunk from all my correction. 
^Eat therefore the fruit of your own way, and be 
filled with your own devices' (Prov. I, 31). I shall 
laugh in your destruction eternally, and after infi- 
nite ages my justice will make you no other reply 
than: Not yet have you been restored to favor." 
O heaven, O God, O sin, O steep fall of the human 
race into the depth of torments, into the most dismal 
abyss of eternity! But "Thou art just, O Lord, 
and Thy judgment is right" (Ps. CXVIII, 137). It 
is just, it is right, that he who never wished through 
repentance to use the mercy offered him, should 
through suffering always be punished by the justice 
with which he was threatened. 



Ill 

OTHER OBJECTS BY V^HICH NATURE SUGGESTS 
ETERNITY 

But I return to the teaching of nature with respect 
to eternity. There are found among certain moun- 



30 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

tains and cliffs hot springs, whose resounding waters 
produce a dashing and roaring so great and of such 
a kind, that those resorting thither who seem at 
their first approach to hear a sort of harmony as of 
musical instruments, have their ears so assailed by 
the incessant din, that what was in the beginning 
sweetest music becomes, as the idea persists, a 
source of disgust and torture; while those who first 
imagine they hear a drum or some more noisy instru- 
ment, are finally driven almost insane by the harass- 
ing sound that unceasingly disturbs them. Here, 
too, we are led to meditate on eternity. Under 
those mountains, the barriers of hell, that outcry, 
that wailing, that din, that shrieking of the damned, 
which began at their first entrance, will never end, 
will continually torment their ears and not merely 
their imagination; and none of these things can be 
assuaged by growing familiar with them. So, on 
the contrary, among the blessed that heavenly 
trisagion. Holy, Holy, Holy, not only will not create 
the least weariness, but will be heard with ever new 
delight. 

Christ in His conversation with the Samaritan 
woman makes mention of eternity and of eternal life 
more than twenty times, and says: ^^But he that 
shall drink of the water that I will give him, shall not 
thirst forever, but it shall become in him a fountain 
of water, springing up into life everlasting" (John 
IV, 13-14). Would that we, too, with the Samari- 



CONSIDERATION II 31 

tan woman would thirst for these fountains, and 
with earneset prayers entreat: "O Lord, give me this 
water, that I may not thirst; give me, O Christ, even 
a drop of this water, or at least some desire of eternal 
life." 

But nature has something else to teach. In the 
eighty-first year after our Lord's birth of the Virgin, 
as Suetonius, Dio Cassius and Pliny the Younger 
relate in detail, on the first of November at the 
seventh hour * there occurred on Mount Vesuvius 
in Campania a terrible eruption of flames, preceded 
by unusual drought and severe earthquakes. There 
were heard also subterranean sounds as of rumbling 
thunder; then the sea roared and grew turbulent, 
and the entire heaven resounded, as if the mountains 
were rushing into conflict. Then, also, immense 
rocks leaped up, the whole atmosphere became 
filled with mingled smoke and flames, and the 
sun itself was darkened; whence many were con- 
vinced that the earth would be reduced to chaos 
or consumed by fire. For so great an abundance of 
ashes poured out that it filled earth, sea, and air, 
inflicting the greatest damage on men, lands, and 
animals, killing fish and birds, and completely bury- 
ing two cities, Herculaneum and Pompeii, while the 
people were witnessing a performance in the theatre. 
Now, these and other cavernous precipices and 

* The eruption of Vesuvius here referred to did not occur on 
the date given by the author, but on 24 August, a.d. 79. — Tr. 



32 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

mountain heights of this kind, which glow with con- 
tinual fires and yet are never consumed or burnt up, 
are given by God to men as living examples of the 
eternal fire in hell, by which the bodies of the guilty 
always burn and are never consumed. Tertullian, 
Minutius, and Pacianus especially declare this. 
Consider, my friend, how here too nature skilfully 
goes in advance and leads you by the hand to con- 
template eternity. 

Finally, the time that is granted us is itself a 
sign and token of eternity. Nature would desire 
that we learn from the sign the thing signified, and 
by this present time measure the eternity to come. 
St. Augustine says: "There is this difference be- 
tween things temporal and eternal : the temporal are 
loved more before they are possessed, but they lose 
their value as soon as they have come into our 
possession, for nothing but a real and unchange- 
able eternity of imperishable joy satisfies the soul. 
But what is eternal is loved more ardently when 
attained than when desired, because charity will 
there obtain more than faith believed or hope de- 
sired. Ah, how despicable does not the earth, 
which we must soon leave, appear to us when we look 
up to heaven, which we shall possess by an eternal 
dominion." 



Consideration III 

IN WHAT ESPECIALLY THE ANCIENT 
ROMANS MADE ETERNITY TO CONSIST 

PLINY the Younger says: ^^I consider happy 
those who perform deeds worth writing about, 
or who do things worth reading; but most 
happy those who do both" (Epist. VI, i6, 3). Thus, 
the Romans thought that in three ways the eternity 
of one's name and reputation could be transmitted 
to posterity. First, they wrote many excellent 
works, but not all were excellent, not all pure and 
undefiled. They mingled in their writings their 
weaknesses also, their infamies and passions — not 
an honorable and royal road to eternity. How many 
books perished even before their authors, and ac- 
cording to the opinion of Plato were like the gardens 
of Adonis, which perished as soon as they were 
made: what pleased quickly did not please long. 
But, granted that the books of all the Romans should 
live forever, yet none of their authors can transfer 
any life from his book to himself. 

Secondly, the Romans not only wrote, but also per- 
formed deeds worth writing about, deeds worthy of 
a learned and elegant style, and these in different 

33 



34 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

spheres of action. If indeed they sought eternity 
in most of them, our faith teaches us that they 
found it in none. They were great, we do not 
deny, in civil and military affairs at home and 
abroad; they were admirable in the arts and 
sciences; they were splendid and prodigal in their 
shows and gifts, marvellous in their buildings, 
mausoleums, tombs, and statues. Let the few fol- 
lowing facts which are but briefly touched upon 
serve as examples. 

Augustus held games in his own name and at his 
own expense twenty-four times, and at the expense 
of the state twenty-three times, and none of these 
cost less than 50,000,000 or 100,000,000 sesterces. 
In our money this latter sum is 2,500,000 philippi.* 
And this large amount of money was squandered 
upon a single performance. The lowest and most 
economical sum expended upon the separate games 
given by Augustus was 50,000,000 sesterces, that is, 
1,250,000 philippi, 

Nero covered over the whole theatre with gold, 
and caused all the stage equipment and costumes for 
comedy to be made of gold. Under this emperor 
there also prevailed the custom of making gifts to 
the populace, which was done as follows. Wooden 
tokens were distributed among the people, on which 
were inscribed houses, fields, farms, estates, prop- 
erty, slaves, animals, and often large amounts of 

* That is, about $5,000,000. — Tr. 



CONSIDERATION III 35 

silver and gems. Whoever presented one of these 
tokens received later the object which the inscrip- 
tion indicated. 

Nero likewise on a certain occasion ordered that 
there be counted out as a largess for the common sol- 
diers 10,000,000 sesterces, that is, 250,000 philippi. 
His mother Agrippina commanded that an amount 
of money as great as this be laid upon the table, in 
order even thus silently to chide and correct her son's 
extravagance. Nero noticed that he was being re- 
proved, and, ordering the amount doubled, said: ^^I 
didn't know that I had given so little." 

The same emperor, when King Tiridates passed 
nine months at Rome as his guest, spent each day 
20,000 philippi, that is, 5,400,000 philippi were 
squandered in those nine months. On his departure 
he gave him as travelling expenses 100,000,000 
sesterces, that is, 2,500,000 philippi. It is not neces- 
sary to enumerate the buildings of this emperor. 

The Emperor Caligula built a bridge of three 
miles over the sea. At Rome there were four hun- 
dred and twenty-four temples, most of them of im- 
posing magnificence. Domitian spent 7,000,000 
philippi for merely gilding the Capitol. On the 
stone steps of the Amphitheatre 87,000 spectators 
could be seated comfortably. Along the passage 
way in the upper part there was standing room for 
12,000 more, making the entire capacity 99,000. 

There were, among many others, twelve public 



36 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

baths built by the emperors in which bathing was 
free of charge. In the baths of Antoninus there 
were sixteen hundred seats of poHshed stone, and 
the same number of persons could conveniently 
bathe at the same time. In the bath of Hetruscus, 
according to Pliny, everything was of silver — ^^the 
pipes, the basins, the very floor. But let us pass to 
other things. 

At Rome there were almost as many statues as 
men. Besides countless ones made of bronze, 
marble, and ivory, there w^ere also many of silver 
and gold. Domitian had on the Capitol a golden 
statue weighing a hundred pounds. Commodus and 
Claudius had golden statues, each of a thousand 
pounds. Claudius had also a silver statue on the 
Rostra. Hence there was appointed a certain pre- 
fect with the title of Roman Count, who had under 
his command many soldiers to guard this great num- 
ber of statues. 

It took a traveller unencumbered by baggage five 
days to traverse the Via Appia. This road extended 
from Rome to Capua, and was so broad that two 
chariots coming from opposite directions could easily 
pass ; so firm that there was no evidence of looseness 
or lack of solidity, just as if it were a single stone. 
And there were many such roads. What trust- 
worthy authors write about the aqueducts is incred- 
ible. The Emperor Claudius spent seven and a half 
millions in gold on an equeduct. Six hundred men 



CONSIDERATION III 37 

were employed for the sole purpose of maintaining 
the aqueducts. These are certainly great works, 
some of them deserving of censure on account of 
their excessive extravagance. Yet the Romans had 
something which surpassed even these, though used 
for a more humble purpose. I mean the sewers or 
subterranean arches, through which flowed water to 
carry off the refuse of the whole city. So many, so 
large, and so long were these sewers, that they can 
justly be rated among the wonders of the world. 
Enough has been said to serve as an example of 
those things which are not, I know, at all incredible 
to one who has even a slight knowledge of the wealth 
and power of the ancient Romans, and has heard the 
testimony of Suetonius, Dio Cassius, Pliny, Livy, 
and others. 

The things that I have mentioned are praise- 
worthy in themselves. In the matter of government 
the nation was as wise as it was for the most part 
unconquered in war, pre-eminent in the arts and 
sciences, and illustrious also in valor. It was in 
consequence of these qualities that Cineas, ambassa- 
dor of Pyrrhus, an eloquent and intelligent man, af- 
ter he had in vain urged the city to accept a treaty 
quite unworthy of the Romans, returning told his 
king that the city seemed to him a temple and the 
senators kings. In such things as these, then, the 
Romans are to be praised. But in the following 
respect they erred most seriously and completely, 



38 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

that though so prudent they placed all their eternity 
in things by no means eternal. 

If the Romans had chosen Augustine as their guide 
on the road to eternity, he would have pointed out 
to them a much more certain way to the very palace 
of eternity (De Civ. Dei. V, 24). ^Tor," says he, 
^^we do not call those emperors happy who have 
counted many years of rule and of life, or many 
victorious triumphs, or treasures bestowed by for- 
tune. These gifts are granted even to those who 
have no right to the eternal kingdom." And who, 
then, Augustine, in your opinion are to be deemed 
happy? Hear, ye emperors, kings, and princes. 
According to the view of Augustine you will obtain 
eternal happiness by observing the following laws: 

First, justice: to rule justly; to hate all the deceit 
and pretenses of injustice. 

Second, modesty in thought: not to be puffed up 
by the words of so many who show you marks of 
honor and respect, but to remember that you are 
human. 

Third, fear and love of God: for the purpose of 
spreading as much as possible the worship of God, 
to make all human power the handmaid of the 
divine majesty through fear and love of the Divin- 
ity. 

Fourth, desire of heaven: to love more ardently 
that eternal kingdom, in which no sharers of power 
are feared. 



CONSIDERATION III 39 

Fifth, readiness to pardon: to be inclined and 
ready to pardon, slow to revenge, and to seek re- 
venge only when the necessity of defending the state 
demands it. 

Sixth, a merciful generosity: to temper decrees 
somewhat harsh by the gentleness of mercy and the 
bestowal of benefits. 

Seventh, continence: to keep indulgence more in 
subjection, in proportion as it has more freedom. 

Eighth, control of the emotions: to prefer to rule 
over one's evil emotions than over any nations what- 
soever. 

Ninth, application to humility and prayer: to per^ 
form all these things through the desire, not of 
empty glory, but of eternal happiness; never to 
neglect the most noble sacrifice of humility and 
prayer. 

These laws Augustine himself affixed as it were to 
the gates of the world, as a shining mirror for all 
princes. Now, O Romans, how far have you wan- 
dered from the gates of these laws, not to mention 
the fact that you held in veneration almost innumer- 
able gods instead of one? "Rome thought she had 
adopted a great religion, because she rejected no 
false teaching; and when she ruled almost all nations, 
she was subject to the errors of all nations" (St. Leo, 
Serm. i). 

But to pass over all this, how vain and ridiculous 
it is to wish to leave all one's eternity after one 



40 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

in parchments and writings, in marble and stone, in 
amphitheatres, pyramids, tombs, and mausoleums! 
And where now is this eternity of stone? Rome has 
had almost the same fate as Jerusalem. One of the 
Apostles, pointing out to Christ, his Master, the 
structure of the temple of Jerusalem, said: "Master, 
behold what stones and what buildings!" Christ 
replied: "Do you see all these great edifices? There 
shall not be left a stone upon a stone, that shall not 
be destroyed" (Matt. XXIV, 1-2). And so there 
is nothing eternal in this world. Where now is the 
ancient city of Rome? it is asked; and the answer 
can be made: It was here. Where are those who 
built it? They have all perished, and we know not 
their ashes. And we ourselves after a few years 
shall follow in the same road — a shade, dust, 
nothing. Alas, how paltry the affairs of even the 
greatest men! Alas, how unstable those of the most 
powerful! For what now are all those things? 
Where are they? They have vanished. Where the 
wealth heaped up beyond belief? It has passed 
away. Where the works vying in height with the 
heavens? They are not visible. Thus, all things 
which to us seem great are a shadow and a dream, 
if compared with the eternal and with eternity. Too 
weak and made of clay is the foundation on which 
is erected the whole fabric of passing glory. Eter- 
nity is not thus engraved on stone and marble. 
Rightly does Lactantius say: "Mortal are the works 



CONSIDERATION III 41 

of mortals." We believe that Babylon, Troy, 
Carthage, and Rome existed, yet scarcely part of 
a corpse remains to give ocular proof of this. So 
the seven wonders of the world, so the golden palace 
of Nero, the baths of Diocletian and those of An- 
toninus, the Septizonium of Severus, the Colosseum 
of Julius,* the Amphitheatre of Pompey, have left 
scarcely a trace of themselves and their names in 
books; and how long will even this last? 



HOW FAR THE ROMANS STRAYED FROM THE TRUE 
ROAD OF ETERNITY 

At Nazareth in the secret chamber of the most 
Holy Virgin the angel made mention of "the king- 
dom of which there shall be no end" (Luke I, 33). 
Such was not the kingdom of Solomon, which lasted 
only four hundred years, until its destruction by 
Babylon. Such was not the kingdom of the Romans, 
nor of the Persians, nor of the Greeks. For where 
now are those kingdoms, once most flourishing? 
Where those very ancient monarchies? How great 
was once Nabuchodonosor in Chaldea and Syria, 
and after him Balthasar? From these the sceptre 

* The Colosseum was not erected by Julius Caesar, but was the 
work of the Flavian Emperors, being completed about A. d. 
80. — Tr. 



42 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

passed to Persia and Media, to Cyrus and Darius. 
Nor did it remain long there: it was transferred to 
Greece, to Alexander of Macedon, a great king, 
long warlike, long successful; but when that valor- 
ous spirit fell, fortune also failed, and passed from 
here with her sceptre into Italy, to Julius Caesar and 
Octavian Augustus. But where now are all these? 
Do you, my Christian friend, seek the kingdom 
of which there shall be no end. Their own end 
destroyed Numantia, Athens, Carthage, Sparta. But 
there will be no end of the kingdom which is above 
us; its king is eternal, eternal its inhabitants. "The 
Lord shall reign forever and ever" (Exod. XV, i8). 
Origen, commenting on these words, says: "Do you 
think that God will reign forever and ever? He 
will reign this long and even longer; and whatever 
you say, the prophet will always tell you in regard 
to the length of his reign: 'this long and even 
longer.' " "And now," says Isidore, "this king- 
dom, everlasting, immeasurable, happy in every 
respect, is promised to every class of men; and 
nevertheless, among us, there is a profound silence 
regarding it.'' For how few there are who spend 
even the smallest part of a day in meditating on 
it; how few who mention it, who instil the thought 
of it into their wives, their children, their entire 
household? We talk freely on all other subjects; 
of heaven there is scarcely any mention, or at least 
the very rarest. In praising our native soil most of 



CONSIDERATION III 43 

us are eloquent; but we almost blush to praise that 
truest country of ours. Many become so unaccus- 
tomed to pious conversation, that, unless with boast- 
ful lips they utter barren trifles, sometimes even 
wanton indecencies, they believe that they are con- 
sidered impolite and disagreeable. This is an 
egregiously mistaken notion. We must long for 
eternal things, with heart and voice, in our thoughts 
and conversations. No true glory but the eternal 
is to be hoped for. 

The chief men of the Jews, in order to pave for 
themselves a way to an eternity of political life 
against the power of Christ, ordered the council to 
assemble in full numbers, and by a most stupid 
prudence passed a decree which brought upon their 
own head what they most feared. In regard to 
these men deliberating in full council Augustine 
elegantly says: ^The priests and Pharisees consulted 
among themselves, yet they did not say: Let us be- 
lieve. These wicked men plotted how they might 
do evil in order to destroy Him, rather than how 
they might consult for their own good so as not to 
perish. And nevertheless they were afraid and in 
a way took counsel, for they said: What do we, 
for this man doth many miracles? If we let him 
alone so, all will believe in him; and the Romans 
will come and take away our place and nation' (John 
XI, 47-48). They feared to lose temporal posses- 
sions, and thought not of eternal life; and so they 



44 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

lost both.'' (In loan. Tract. 49.) So it happens; 
such is the vanity of our thoughts and the sport of 
our affections. And who are we? What are our 
possessions? Today we flourish, we are com- 
mended, we please; tomorrow the flower will droop, 
and we shall be as displeasing to those whom we 
hitherto pleased, as to God whom we never strove 
to please. We neglect heaven, yet do not retain 
earth; we do not gain the favor of God, and we lose 
that of the world, wretched on the one side and on 
the other because of a most deplorable loss. If 
death should spare those who are fortunate in this 
world, perhaps they would find here a kind of 
glory; a kind, I say, for there is no true glory 
but that which is in heaven and eternal. But death 
spares no one; in the darkness it always sees and is 
not seen; it waits to attack the unwary from ambush. 
Whither will it lead us, if we live badly? To ^'the 
realms of dusky Proserpina and to ^Eacus holding 
judgment" (Horace, Odes II, 13, 21-22). There 
nobility will free no one; power will protect no one; 
the applause of men will rescue no one; but the 
favor of God alone and that glory which has been 
attained by fleeing from glory will save. There is 
no true glory but the eternal. 

The Jewish wise man describes wisdom as 
a queen in whose train attend two handmaids — on 
the right Eternity, on the left Glory (Prov. Ill, 16). 
Glory is of no worth, if the eternity which we Chris- 



CONSIDERATION III 45 

tians look for is absent. 'We have not here a last- 
ing city, but we seek one that is to come, eternal 
in heaven'' (Heb. XIII, 14). The just will be in 
eternal remembrance. O Christian, you give alms 
to the poor, you refuse food to a greedy appetite, 
you resist the enemy of chastity; these are not great 
works, nor do they require much time; nevertheless 
the memory of the deed and also its reward will be 
eternal. 

How little Magdalen expended on the feet of 
Christ; how quickly she performed that service, and 
yet it became known to the whole world. Others 
would have admired other things in Magdalen: the 
ruddy beauty of her countenance, the enticing charm 
of her form, the lovely flower of her youth, her rare 
grace, vast wealth, great favors, pleasing affability, 
the popular praises accorded her. Yet these things 
procured her no commendation but only disgrace. 
But a service performed only for the feet, not in 
itself a great work of mercy, won for her, on the 
testimony of Christ, eternal glory, an immortal 
name: 'Tt shall be preached in the whole world'' 
(Matt. XXVI, 13). This work was not carved on 
marble, it was not moulded in Cyprian bronze, it was 
not proclaimed to the accompaniment of trumpets 
and cymbals; nevertheless it has lived up to the pres- 
ent and will live eternally, "and it shall be preached 
in the whole world." If you look to the action, tlie 
avaricious economist Iscariot finds faults with it, and 



46 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

the proud Pharisee Simon condemns it; if you look 
to the material, it was a perfume worth at most 
thirty pieces of gold; if to the place, it was private; 
if to the witnesses, they were few; if to the person, 
an infamous woman; and yet "it shall be preached 
in the whole world." 

How many emperors have planted their victorious 
eagles in the enemy's camp! How many warlike 
leaders have laudably managed most numerous ar- 
mies! How many far-seeing statesmen have wisely 
governed most extensive nations ! How many great 
kings have won honors and statues, established 
camps and cities ! How many learned men have put 
their entire brain into new inventions, which, like 
alchemists, they distilled upon paper by means 
of their pen, that they might be reckoned among 
men worthy of remembrance! Yet all these lie en- 
veloped in the night of silence and oblivion. But 
a single work of a just person brings eternal remem- 
brance; cannot grow old; is beyond the reach of 
envy; is heard and read in reverence and silence by 
philosophers, generals, kings, and pontiffs: "It shall 
be preached in the whole world.'' Accordingly, to 
live and die well is the only road to eternal immor- 
tality. 

Go now, ye Romans, and seek eternity in statues 
and marbles, although there you will never find it. 
I rather desire and prefer what St. Jerome desired 
when in relating the works of Paul the Hermit he 



CONSIDERATION III 47 

said: ^^Remember Jerome the sinner, who, if God 
should give him the choice, would prefer the tunic 
of Paul and choose it with its merits rather than 
■the purple of kings with their kingdoms.'^ We 
Christians, that we may not incur the loss of our 
money, make a loan, or rather we send it before 
us to another world, and heaven receives it. This 
is a safe transaction, and our wealth is carried 
thither by most trusty couriers, no other indeed than 
mendicants and the poor. We give to them a few 
cheap things, for which we are to receive the great- 
est possessions in heaven. So Christ promised and 
ordained: "And I say to you: Make unto you 
friends of the mammon of iniquity, that when you 
shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting 
dwellings'' (Luke XVI, 9) . But let us pass from the 
Romans to others. 



II 

A WAY TO ETERNITY BETTER THAN THE FORMER 

Darius, that king of the Persians who became 
famous because of the disaster he sustained, had in 
his army ten thousand Persians whom he called the 
Immortals, not because (as Caelius Rhodiginus ex- 
plains) they would never die at all (for where are 
there such?), but because if any of them should 
lessen the number by death or sickness, another was 



48 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

immediately put in his place; and thus there were 
never more nor less than ten thousand. In this 
way Darius achieved a sort of immortality and eter- 
nity in numbers; but this was very brief, since 
Darius and his whole army perished utterly. For- 
merly the governors used to pray thus to Darius, the 
Mede: "King Darius, live forever" (Dan. VI, 6). 
Ah, how empty this prayer, and how short this eter- 
nity! We live seventy, or at most eighty years, yet 
in our dreams we wish to live eternally. Quite right 
was the thought of Xerxes, who (as Herodotus re- 
lates), in order to subjugate Greece, conducted from 
Asia by land and sea two armies, consisting of 
2,317,600 men, not including the servants of the 
soldiers. As he stood on a mountain and gazed 
down upon this vast host, he burst into tears at the 
sight, and said he wept because after fifty or sixty 
years, from so many hundred thousands of men, so 
sturdy and picked, scarcely any would survive. 

We can devise for ourselves eternities of one 
kind or another; yet meanwhile "we all die and 
like waters we fall down into the earth" (2 Kings 
XIV, 14). 

Another and better t3^e of eternity was worked 
out at Constantinople. In the four hundred and 
fifty-ninth year after our Lord's birth of the Virgin, 
the church of Constantinople, in the time of Bishop 
Gennadius, was enriched by a new and famous 
monastery, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, and 



CONSIDERATION III 49 

belonging to the Acoemetae, that is, those who sleep 
not, who were accustomed day and night to sing to 
God continual and never-ending praises, in the fol- 
lowing manner. All the Cenobites were divided into 
three classes, so that when the first class had finished 
some part of the divine praises, the second began; 
and when the second, too, ended, the third began. 
From this pious custom the city had a sort of heaven 
of its own. Thus there was there represented the 
heavenly eternity, through all of which God will be 
praised without weariness or tedium, amid the great- 
est delights. How rightly does the inspired psalm- 
ist exclaim: ''Blessed are they that dwell in Thy 
house, O Lord; they shall praise Thee forever and 
ever" (Ps. LXXXIII, 5). Then the words of all 
the blessed will be those of Peter on the rock of 
Thabor: 'Tt is good for us to be here.'' 

For as St. Bernard says in his hymn (Serm. 2 
De Omn. Sanctis): "Eternity is wealth exceeding 
great." But he also adds: ''Eternity is not found 
unless sought perseveringly." From you then, O 
blessed Bernard, we demand the means of seeking it. 
Hear, therefore, the teaching of this excellent father. 
By poverty, meekness, and weeping there is renewed 
in the soul a certain resemblance and image of 
eternity, embracing all time. By poverty we merit 
future goods: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for 
theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Where the poor 
are scorned and turned away, where the heart is 



so CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

enclosed in the chest with one's money, where money 
is spent according to the dictates of avarice, there no 
affection and love of poverty exist, and none either 
for eternity. 

By meekness we claim for ourselves present goods: 
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the 
land." Here it may be asked in regard to a man 
in whom there is no evidence of meekness or pa- 
tience, from whom scarcely ever a Vv^ord at all mild 
is heard, what gain he derives from that ungovern- 
able impatience of his; what advantage it brings 
him to become indignant so often, to rage, to mur- 
mur, to talk loudly, to create a tumult, to wish to 
overturn everything, to address no one with even a 
little courtesy. Certainly such a one suffers the loss 
of goods or reputation, frequently of both. For 
whatever wealth he has he does not possess, but 
guards it like a dog, which can only bark, attack, 
and bite; he does not by reason of his impatience 
increase his good name, if he have any. He loses 
heaven before he gains it. 

Finally, by sorrow we regain even the past, which 
we have prodigally squandered by sinning. But it 
is necessary that this grief be not of a single hour 
or day. For what would we think of that son, who 
attended his mother's funeral with tearful eyes and 
in mourning garb, yet on that or the following day 
immediately laughs with dry eyes and changes his 
mourning garments for one of gay colors? This is 



CONSIDERATION III 51 

not to grieve seriously, to banish grief so quickly. 
We do something very similar, alas, too frequently. 
Today we fortify ourselves by a confession that frees 
us from sin and by Holy Communion; we grieve for 
having sinned. But tomorrow we again sin without 
remorse. We often deeply deplore our former life, 
and yet we return to it. We forswear the crimes 
we have committed, and on the same day we again 
perpetrate them. Thus by the same tongue by 
which we preach the sinless Christ, we condemn Him 
to the cross, true brothers of Pontius Pilate, who 
with one and the same mouth proclaimed Him to be 
our Messias and worthy of life, and to be deserving 
of being hurried to the cross; men altogether un- 
stable, and in nothing more constant than in seeking 
a wicked course of life. Alas, we carry in our 
hearts much of the changeableness of the moon. 
Sometimes piety pleases us so greatly, that almost 
no amusement can interfere with its holy duties. 
With look downcast, and resenting any relaxation, 
we assume an air of sanctity, which is, alas, des- 
tined not to continue long. Afterwards we begin to 
hate this very piety, and, turning the stream in the 
opposite direction, we seek again the ease and luxury 
which we had given up. Thus, we as easily sever 
the friendship made with God as we form it reluc- 
tantly. While we are thus engaged, behold piety, 
restored, is with us again, and by sorrowful repen- 
tance again drives out luxury, imtil we begin to 



52 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

repent even of this repentance. Thus we rarely 
maintain by persistent efforts the semblance of vir- 
tue which demands labor. At a slight motion we 
descend to our former uncleanness. Hence this great 
inconstancy of life produces in our mind all kinds 
of indulgences and vices. Openly, to be sure, we 
seem to respect virtue, but within our soul we cul- 
tivate vice with sedulous care. This is not the 
way to eternity, unless to that eternity which knows 
only anguish and the greatest perpetual torments. 
But let us choose from among Catholics someone 
most given over to bodily pleasures, let us conduct 
him to a furnace glowing and crackling wdth flames, 
and question him as follows: "How much pleasure 
do you demand for passing one day naked in this 
furnace?'' He will unhesitatingly reply: "I would 
not take the whole world nor all the pleasures of 
the world as a reward or gift, to allow myself to be 
tortured in these flames for a single day." But 
let us bargain further: "What reward do you ask to 
remain in this fire for only half a day?" He will 
say: "Offer whatever delights and whatever price 
you wish; I will not purchase them with so great tor- 
ments." But suppose we should at length inquire: 
"What reward or pleasure do you demand to enter 
this burning furnace and remain therein only a single 
hour?" He will surely reply: "Give whatever the 
most avaricious or the most shameless person could 
ask; this is not to be compared with the unspeak- 
able burnings and pains of a single hour." 



CONSIDERATION III 53 

But if the one thus questioned has replied rightly 
and in harmony with reason, how does it happen, 
O God, that for the sake of a slight and paltry gain, 
for the sake of a deceitful and fleeting honor, a 
shameful pleasure of no long duration, eternal 
punishment is lightly regarded by so many? We 
cannot be persuaded to remain a single hour in the 
fire, though the whole world be offered as a prize; 
and yet we do not fear the eternal fires of hell, 
provided only that gain invites, or honor attracts, or 
pleasure allures. ^^I hope," you say, ^^for better 
things, and the infinite goodness of God bids me not 
to take such a gloomy forecast of future and eternal 
things." We are accustomed to speak thus, and 
these words are not impious, but our deeds contra- 
dict them. It is rash and too dangerous to pass 
one's life in vices, and at the same time to look 
forward to an eternity among the blessed. Even a 
single mortal sin is sufficient for damnation. Know 
you not what Christ threatens? "Whosoever shall 
say to his brother. Thou fool, shall be in danger of 
hell fire" (Matt. V, 22). Or know you not what 
Christ forbids? "Whosoever shall look on a woman 
to lust after her, hath already committed adultery 
with her in his heart" (Matt. V, 28). Or know 
you not what Christ forewarns? "Not every one 
that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the 
kingdom of heaven; but he that doth the will of 
my Father who is in heaven" (Matt. VII, 21). Or 



54 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

know you not how many Christ bars out? ^^He that 
loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy 
of me"; and ^^He that taketh not up his cross and 
followeth me is not worthy of me" (Matt. X, 37, 38). 
Or know you not how openly and solemnly he en- 
forces this truth: ^^Many are called, but few are 
chosen" (Matt. XX, 16)? Few, few! Or know 
you not how often He exhorts to amendment of 
life? ^^Unless you be converted and become as 
little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom 
of heaven" (Matt. XVIII, 3). "If thy hand or thy 
foot scandalize thee, cut it off and cast it from thee. 
It is better for thee to go into life maimed or lame, 
than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into 
everlasting fire" (Matt. XVIII, 8). "Unless you 
shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish" 
(Luke XIII, 3). And He adds: "Strive to enter 
by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall 
seek to enter, and shall not be able" (Luke XIII, 
24). Or know you not also how explicitly St. Paul 
enumerates all those things which preclude a blessed 
eternity? "The works of the flesh are manifest, 
which are fornication, imcleanness, immodesty, lux- 
ury, idolatry, witchcrafts, enmities, contentions, 
emulations, wraths, quarrels, dissensions, sects, en- 
vies, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like. 
Of which I foretell you, as I have foretold you, that 
they who do such things shall not obtain the king- 
dom of God." (Gal V, 19-21.) 



CONSIDERATION III 55 

But if anyone is conscious to himself of even one 
of the things here enumerated, and does not so 
grieve for it that he seeks every means of avoiding 
that sin for the future, but meanwhile keeps re- 
peating to himself that vain word, ^'I hope, I hope"; 
his hope is nothing but mere presumption. To 
undergo the risk of blows and scourges is an evil 
that can be endured; to stake a hundred or a thou- 
sand florins on an uncertain throw of dice is not 
a supreme hazard; to put one's head and life in 
peril is not the greatest harm. But to expose the 
eternal salvation of body as well as of soul to so 
great danger; to live thus in uncertainty; to hope 
in words but in deeds to act contrary to such hope: 
this is the supreme evil of all evils; this is the 
supreme hazard; this is truly the greatest harm; 
this is the most pernicious act of boldness and rash- 
ness, the extreme of folly and madness. "Under- 
stand these things, you that forget God; lest He 
snatch you away, and there be none to deliver you" 
(Ps.XLIX, 22). 



Ill 

THIS WAY MUST BE EARNESTLY SOUGHT 

Accordingly, let there be no man of Christian 
faith who does not frequently ask of himself and 
of God's representatives: "What shall I do to obtain 



56 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

a happy eternity? Is this the true road to that 
eternity which I seek? To be sure, I am perform- 
ing some work, but how Httle it is and how sHght! 
I aspire, indeed, to immortal and eternal joys, but 
are these works of mine, so few, so feeble, so cold, 
deserving of an eternal reward? I desire, indeed, 
to reach the haven, but I dread a way which is a 
little too troublesome, although that is the safest and 
best way to heaven which is also the roughest and 
narrowest." The truth of divine lips proclaims 
this; Christ cries out and warns: "Enter ye in at 
the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is 
the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there 
are [alas, they are many] who go in thereat. How 
narrow is the gate and strait is the way that leadeth 
to life, and few there are [alas, they are few] that 
find it" (Matt. VIII, 13-14). He does not cease 
to cry out or to warn: "Strive to enter by the nar- 
row gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter 
and shall not be able" (Luke XIII, 24). O how 
dreadful and terrible are those words "Many" and 
"Few"! Meanv/hile, wretched and too inconsider- 
ate regarding the matter of eternity, we deceive our- 
selves, and I know not whether we hope or dream 
that we are to be numbered among those few in 
heaven. O that while there are days of salvation 
and an acceptable time, we would frequently turn 
a more attentive gaze towards eternity, and reason 
thus with ourselves: "What, pray, is all this which I 



CONSIDERATION III 57 

suffer or behold others suffering, what is it all com- 
pared with eternity? Indeed, if with St. Paul I 
could count as many labors and dangers as he him- 
self endured, and related in those Epistles which he 
sent to the Corinthians; if I should bear hunger and 
thirst, bitter enmities and injuries, sickness and 
poverty; nay, if with St. Paul I should be over- 
whelmed with stones, beaten with rods; if I should 
suffer shipwreck; what are all these things com- 
pared with eternal punishments? Therefore, in all 
adversities I must reflect: ^I have seen an end of all 
perfection' (Ps. CXVIII, 96)." 

The Prophet Daniel, after relating many calami- 
ties, adds: "And this until a time'' (Dan. XI, 24). 
Where, where are you who are suffering, afflicted, 
unfortunate? Why do you bury yourselves in your 
tears? Why do you make your whole life bitter 
by vain complaints of impatience? You have solace, 
and indeed a great one from time itself. Do various 
misfortunes harass you? Be not dismayed; they 
will last only until a time. Do insults defame you, 
injuries vex you, many evils disturb you? Dismiss 
lamentations; all these things will be only until a 
time. Your groans will not extend into endless ages; 
your tears will fall but for a short time; you will 
not heave eternal sighs; you will endure a brief 
sorrow, and pass to immortal felicity. Ecclesiasticus 
clearly declares this: "A patient man shall bear for a 
time, and afterwards joy shall be restored to him" 



S8 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

(Ecclus. I, 29). But you, too, O would-be happy 
ones, dear offspring of the world, glory not in your 
strength! In how small a prison and how narrow an 
enclosure all your happiness is confined! Until a 
time you will triumph; until a time your happy 
dreams will last; but after no long time death will bid 
you lay aside the mask of fortune, and force you to 
stand amid the throng, destined then to be so much 
the more truly miserable, as you were formerly 
happier in your brief imaginary joy. Therefore, all 
things will be until a time. Eternity alone is sub- 
ject to no laws of time. Therefore, if my body or 
soul suffers; if goods or honors are taken away; if 
pains or sadness, cares or any other affliction interior 
or exterior harass me; all these things are unreal and 
momentary compared to eternal punishments. For 
when after the day of final judgment fifty million 
years have passed, there will still remain a thousand 
times fifty million years to pass. When these, too, 
according to our method of calculating, have passed, 
other and other and again other millions will remain 
to be passed, and this without end. And who thinks 
of this? Who ponders on it? We try, indeed, 
sometimes to understand eternal things, but our 
hearts, full of vanity, still flit among the past and 
future movements of things. Who will grasp and fix 
in his mind this truth, so that he may pause for 
a little while and for a little while draw to himself 
the splendor of eternity which is ever immovable? 



CONSIDERATION III 59 

Nobly did Myrogenes act when Eustachius, Arch- 
bishop of Jerusalem, had sent gifts to him; modestly 
refusing to accept them, he said: "This one thing I 
ask: pray for me that I may be freed from eternal 
torment." And Cicero strayed not far from the 
truth when he said: "Nothing in human affairs can 
seem great to the wise man to whom all eternity 
and the greatness of the whole universe are known." 
But far better than Cicero did Francis, the sincere 
lover of poverty and true contemplator of eternity, 
speak: "The pleasure here is small, but the punish- 
ment afterwards immense; the labor here is slight, 
but the glory afterwards eternal. Choose, then; 
many are called; few chosen; all receive their due 
reward." 

Therefore, let anyone who is bound by even one 
mortal sin hasten his repentance. "It is better and 
sweeter," says Guerricus (Serm. 4 De Purific), "to 
be cleansed by water than by fire." Now is the 
time for penance; let penance forestall punishment. 
"He that fears the hoary frost, the snow shall fall 
upon him" (Job VI, 16). He that fears smaller 
losses will incur the greatest; he that avoids the 
light labor of penance will endure the most severe 
pains of hell. Thus St. Gregory says: "Some, while 
they fear temporal adversities, expose themselves to 
the penalty of eternal punishment." In agreement 
with this is the saying of St. Paucianus: "Remember 
that in hell there is no confession, nor can penance 



6o CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

then be granted, since the time for repentance is 
past. Hasten while you are in the way; behold, we 
fear the fires of time and dread the hooks of the 
executioners. Compare with these the eternal bands 
of torturers, and the darts of flames which at no 
time die." These thoughts St. Ambrose beautifully 
expresses in a letter to a virgin who had fallen: 
^Tenance must be performed not in words but in 
deed; and the way to perform it is this: Set before 
your eyes from hov/ great glory you have fallen, and 
from what book your name has been effaced, and 
beheve now that you have been placed near that 
exterior darkness where there will be weeping of eyes 
and gnashing of teeth without end. When you have 
conceived these truths in your mind with firm faith, 
as they really are, namely, that the prevaricating 
soul must be handed over to infernal punishments 
and the fires of hell, and that no other remedy has 
been appointed after baptism than the solace of 
penance; then be content to undergo any labor 
whatever, any affliction whatever, provided only you 
be freed from eternal punishments. Bodily diseases 
induce a sick person to purge the body; let the 
diseases of the soul induce us to purge the soul; let 
eagerness for salvation urge us on, let dread of eter- 
nal death and eternal torment urge us on, let hope 
of obtaining eternal life and eternal glory urge us on. 
Let us grasp at whatever cleanses the soul; let us 
shun whatever stains it; but defilement of body 



CONSIDERATION III 6i 

especially stains it." (Ad Virg. Lapsam 8.) This 
is precisely the most faithful admonition of St. 
Ambrose. 

Christ JesuS; grant that we may so possess all 
these vain and passing things as not to lose the 
eternal; but let us keep to the path of those of whom 
St. Augustine has excellently said: ^^Many through 
a desire of salvation come voluntarily under the 
yoke, and though a little while before distinguished 
and exalted, they now strive to attain humility; 
they desire to be what they had before despised; 
and they begin to hate what they had been; like 
strangers, looking forward to things to come, they 
sigh after that eternal country; they prefer absti- 
nence to delights, watchings to sleep, poverty to 
riches; they count as pleasure the difficult labor 
against their vices; they love their enemies, are 
crushed by no injuries, on account of the eternal 
reward. Who would not labor exceedingly through 
love of you, O eternal reward?" 



Consideration IV 

HOW DAVID MEDITATED ON ETERNITY, 

AND WHAT IS THE MEANS OF 

IMITATING HIM IN THIS 

THAT God will punish eternally the apostate 
angels and men condemned at the last judg- 
ment has seemed to some very hard and in- 
credible. Even Origen, a man of great intellect 
and remarkable learning, and skilled in the Scrip- 
tures, dared to teach in his books entitled Periarchon 
(On Origins), that the damned and the demons will 
be restored to grace after they have sufficiently ex- 
piated in fire the guilt they have contracted. Among 
others St. Augustine (De Civ. Dei XXI, 23 ff.) 
convicts him of error; yet this error finds not a few 
who assent to it. Heretics called Aniti spread it 
through Spain, with various interpretations. Some 
thought that all the damned would be released from 
hell; others believed that this applied to Christians 
only, others to Catholics only, others to those only 
who had been more generous in bestowing alms. 
Even if St. Augustine had not proved them guilty 
of error, the sacred pages would very openly refute 
them. "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting 
fire"; and "These shall go into everlasting punish- 



CONSIDERATION IV 63 

ment, but the just into life everlasting" (Matt. XXV, 
41, 46). Here no explanations, no arguments can 
be brought forward in opposition. 

Hence the inspired psalmist, King David, had at 
heart two periods of time, looking not so much to 
the past as to the future: "My eyes," he says, "pre- 
vented the watches; I was troubled, and I spoke not" 
(Ps. LXXVI, s). What interrupted your sleep, 
blessed prophet? What were those tasks before 
daybreak? Whence this silence and trouble of 
soul? Hear the cause: "I thought upon the days 
of old, and I had in my mind the eternal years" 
(Ibid. 6). Lo, this is what broke off his sleep: 
he compared the past with the future and eternal 
years; and he did this not only during the day: "And 
I meditated in the night with my own heart; and 
I was exercised and I swept my spirit" (Ibid. 7), 
And what is the motive of this nightly exercise? 
"Will God then cast off forever, or will He never be 
more favorable again?" (Ibid. 8). Behold how he 
dreads and shudders at eternity; how he fears the 
divine judgments, lest God visit him with everlasting 
punishments. And what is the end or effect of this 
meditation? "And I said. Now have I begun" 
(Ibid. 11). Thus, in a moment almost he became 
better than he had been; he did not defer, he did 
not procrastinate, he did not put off his amendment 
to his declinnig years. Now have I begun, now 
will I live more holily, not after an hour or a day. 



64 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

"If I could meditate on eternity/' someone may 
say, "as blessed David did, perhaps I should 
promptly and cheerfully pronounce the words ^Now 
have I begun.' But I am involved in daily cares, 
impeded by labors, distracted by duties in a thou- 
sand ways. I live among men; I see and hear much 
evil; and thus there is scarcely room in my life for 
so salutary a reflection on eternity. In social 
circles, in law courts, at banquets, our conversations 
are not of such a nature that we can turn our mind, 
wandering over many things, to the consideration of 
eternity. At banquets, indeed, the subject of con- 
versation is trifles and cups; serious topics have 
long been banished thence. Law courts and social 
circles scarcely admit such austere discussions. 
News from other lands is sought; too old and too 
often repeated is the news which is brought from 
heaven and from hell ; we know this already. What 
need to repeat such things so often, even to the point 
of causing weariness? Thus, scarcely anywhere is 
there found a place suited to meditate on eternity, 
scarcely ever an opportune time." May you love 
the truth, my Christian friend, how truly have you 
said this! O that you would amend the fault which 
you acknowledge! Too clear is this, and we believe 
our eyes, that there is in the world almost no care 
for eternity, although there are not wanting objects 
which remind us of it, some frequently, some even 
daily. 



CONSIDERATION IV 65 

The ritual of the Church in the installation of 
bishops advises that these words be read to them: 
^^Have in mind the eternal years." When the newly 
elected bishop, according to solemn rite, is led to 
the altar, there is one who precedes him, and brand- 
ishing a glowing torch repeats three times: ^^Holy 
father, thus passes the glory of the world." How 
salutary and pious a practice it would be to repeat 
daily to ourselves at the beginning and end of all 
our actions: ^^Have in mind the eternal years," es- 
pecially when there is an occasion of sin, when the 
suggestions of the demon are importunate, when 
danger of doing violence to conscience threatens. 
O, then have in mind the eternal years. 



VARIOUS ADMONITIONS TO THINK ON ETERNITY 

Philip, King of Macedon, ordered that every 
morning the words "Philip, you are a man" be re- 
peated to him three times by a noble youth. He 
wished never to forget his mortality, that he might 
live among mortals more wisely. I think that there 
ought to be no man of Catholic faith who should not 
be his own daily monitor, and say to himself thought- 
fully at least three times: "Eternity, eternity, 
eternity." Wherefore, "take order with thy house, 
for thou shalt die and not live" (Isai. XXXVIII, i), 



66 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

says the prophet to King Ezechias. There will be 
an evening whose next morning you will not see; or 
there will be a morning whose following evening 
will not be yours. Therefore, perform your duties 
so as not to injure conscience; so devote yourself 
to things that will perish, that through them you 
may not perish and lose eternal possessions. 

There is also this good custom in Germany, that 
when one enters a room in a dim light he should utter 
these Christian words: ^^May God give us eternal 
light!" In churches before the most Holy Sacra- 
men of the Eucharist a lamp with an ever burning 
light keeps watch and proclaims that there dwells 
the Light of the world and the Creator of light. 
What are these things but reminders to think on 
eternity? There is also an eternity in prisons, but 
it is infamous and horrible. To be condemned to 
everlasting galleys, to everlasting prisons, is a ter- 
rible punishment, and to many this seems more dis- 
mal than death itself. Those afflicted with diseases 
and other sufferings likewise picture to themselves 
a sort of eternity; whence we often hear expres- 
sions such as these: "Will this last forever? Shall 
I be thus confined to bed eternally? Are these per- 
petual pains to be endured? Shall I be thus har- 
assed and tormented always?" But these eternities 
are short and restricted within their own limits. 

But I return to prisons, perpetual prisons which 
many enter voluntarily and of their own accord 



CONSIDERATION IV 67 

and in which they willingly pass their whole life. 
These are religious men and women, who do not 
think it difficult for God's sake to bid an eternal fare- 
well to the world and to confine themselves in 
sacred prisons. There is a monastery in Bavaria, 
taking its name from St. Alto, which is divided into 
two classes, one of men and the other women, so that 
thus divided it almost equals that double monastery 
in Constantinople which I have mentioned before, 
in chanting continually day and night the praises of 
God. Here, when a virgin receives the sacred 
veil in the church and is made a spouse of 
Christ, it is customary, after all the public 
rites have been finished, to lead the new bride of 
Christ into the convent through the sanctuary. 
There precede her four of the nuns, who, according 
to a praiseworthy practice, carry a bier. When all 
the sacred virgins have entered, the doors are closed 
and bolted, just as if the new bride of Christ were 
told: "See to it, O virgin, that what you are now 
beginning you complete fittingly and perseveringly. 
Reflect that you are now entering upon this road, 
not to return until death. The world and whatever 
belongs to the world you must renounce, and return 
thither no more even in thought; let Christ be all 
things to you. Behold, you are passing through this 
door to the house of obedience, and you will return 
through it only on this bier which you see, when you 
make your final journey to the tomb on the shoulders 



68 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

of your sisters. The path to heaven is always open 
to you; in it you may walk and hasten, but not to 
the world, not to your country, not to your father's 
house; for we are now burying you alive, and you 
yourself are attending your own obsequies." To 
many of the onlookers this seems a mournful and 
sad spectacle. ^^What," they say, "to be thus con- 
fined in an eternal enclosure, to lie hidden always 
in one place, to be denied all return to one's parents, 
to live far from pleasures, to be thus buried before 
death! We shudder at it. Though other men and 
women lead the way, we will not follow." But tell 
me, pray, ye children of the w^orld, w^hat think you 
of the question put to you by the prophet Isaias: 
"Which of you can dwell with everlasting burnings?" 
(Isai. XXXIII, 14). Does it seem to you intoler- 
able to be cloistered for a few short years in order 
to lead a holy life, to obtain heaven more securely 
and more certainly, to merit a happy eternity in 
heaven, to attain the eternal vision of God? Yet 
those who live religiously and purely experience a 
more genuine joy than those who abound and over- 
flow with daily luxuries and pleasures. But tell me 
also, will a bier be borne before the damned to 
signify that they are now being banished to the 
funeral pyre and the punishment of fire, but that 
after several centuries they will die and be carried 
out for burial? O how desirable and mild w^ould be 
this sentence! But "they look for death, and it 



CONSIDERATION IV 69 

cometh not'' (Job III, 21). For a thousand and a 
thousand and another thousand years they will look 
for it, and not yet will it come; nevertheless they 
look for it, although they know that they look in 
vain. You who love heaven, and yourself, now while 
there is time, keep in mind the eternal years. 

Concerning a monastery somewhat similar in re- 
gard to entrance, Rufinus of Aquileia (Bk. I, Ch. 17) 
relates the following. In the Thebaid is the monas- 
tery of Isidore, as extensive as it is renowned, en- 
closed with spacious walls, generously equipped with 
gardens, wells, and all things necessary for life, so 
that no one may have any excuse or cause for think- 
ing of departure. For this is an unchangeable law 
of the monastery, that no one ever withdraws from 
that place where he has once entered. To heaven, 
to the tomb only, and not elsewhere, is egress open. 
And it may seem wonderful, says Rufinus, that 
having entered under this law, not the necessity of 
the law, but the happiness of the life itself keeps 
men there. All their work is to pray, to praise God, 
to employ their energy in religious occupations; all 
which offices they perform with such application and 
holiness of life, that there are among them many 
who are wonder-workers and who have power to 
perform miracles. Moreover, they live in such 
temperance and singular prerogative of life that 
there is no disease among them except the last, that 
is, death itself, which tears away the bars and bolts 



70 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

of all cloisters, and does not allow itself to be ex- 
cluded by any doors however strongly barred. Does 
not this monastery also present to us some shadow 
of eternity? But let us proceed. 



II 

ETERNITY EXCEEDS ALL ARITHMETICAL NUMBERS 
AND LAWS 

In explaining eternity a common and well known 
problem in arithmetic is wont to be proposed, which 
children are taught in school; and it is this: "Sup- 
pose," it is said, "there is a mountain composed of 
minute grains of sand, as large as the whole world, 
or in mass and size even greater, and that only a 
single grain be taken from this mountain by an 
angel each year. How many thousands of years, 
and again thousands upon thousands; how many 
hundred thousands, nay, how many thousand mil- 
lions of years will have passed before the mountain 
would appear to diminish and decrease?" Suppose 
now that the teacher of arithmetic sits down and 
makes a calculation and reckons up how many years 
will pass before half the mountain thus so slowly 
removed by the angel disappears, and how many be- 
fore it entirely disappears. We indeed understand 
this scarcely otherwise than if there were going to 
be no end at all. But our imagination is most 



CONSIDERATION IV 71 

seriously mistaken and shamefully deceived in re- 
gard to that which it cannot adequately grasp. 

But let us suppose that finally the last grain of 
this immense mountain has actually been counted; 
yet eternity exceeds it by an incomparable length 
(and nothing is more certain), because there is no 
comparison, no proportion between the finite and 
the infinite. Eternity admits of no confines, no 
boundaries; therefore the damned will burn during 
this long, this incomprehensible term of years in 
perpetual flames, until a mountain of so great size 
can by a mere word be transferred to another place. 
But the measure and limit of their torments will be 
so far from being ended at that time, that it can 
then be said: ^^Now eternity is just beginning; 
nothing has been subtracted from it, it is still entire. 
After a thousand years, after a hundred thousand 
years, there is not yet an end nor middle nor begin- 
ning of eternity, but its measure is always.'^ 

A theologian of our age (Cornelius a Lapide, In 
Exod. XV, 18) explains this arithmetical calcula- 
tion in the matter of eternity in exactly the same 
sense, but in slightly different words; all of which 
I shall measure out for you, dear reader, fully and 
in good faith, for this matter can never be sufficiently 
spoken of nor recommended nor inculcated. "Con- 
sider," he says, "how lon^ is eternity, how long will 
God and the saints reip-n, how long will the damned 
burn in hell? Forever. And what is 'forever'? 



72 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

Think of a hundred thousand years: you have 
thought of nothing in respect to eternity. Think 
of ten hundred thousand years, nay centuries: you 
have yet subtracted nothing from eternity. Think 
of a thousand milHon years: eternity remains yet 
equally entire. Think of a thousand thousand mil- 
lion years multiplied indefinitely. Think, I say, of 
these countless years passed in flames, and not yet 
have you begun eternity. Think of as many millions 
of years as there are drops of water in the ocean: not 
yet have you reached the beginning of eternity. 
There remains an equally eternal eternity of joys 
for the saints and of torments for the damned." 
O Jesus, spare; O Jesus, Jesus, save; have mercy 
on me, O good Jesus, that I be not precipitated into 
this eternity of the damned. 

But if God were to say to the damned: "Let the 
earth be filled with the finest sand, so that the whole 
world is made full of these minute grains, from the 
earth even to the empyrean heaven; and every thou- 
sandth year let an angel come and take away from 
this immense heap of sand but a single grain. When 
after as many millions of years as there are grains 
he shall have exhausted them, I shall release you 
from hell"; O, how the damned would exult! They 
would not deem themselves damned. But now, af- 
ter all these millions of years, there remain other 
and still other millions to infinity, forever and ever. 
This is the heavy weight of eternity which oppresses 



CONSIDERATION IV 73 

the damned. Reflect, O sinner, reflect that this 
weight threatens you, unless you come to your 
senses. 

William Peraldus, Bishop of Lyons, a very reli- 
gious and learned man, suggests to us another 
method of meditating on this innumerable nimiber 
of years among the damned (Sum. Virt. 7, de 8 
Beatitud.). He says: ^'If the damned should each 
day shed only one tear, which would be preserved 
with all the others still to be shed, they would at 
length pour forth more tears than the sea has waters; 
for all the drops in the sea can be reduced to num- 
ber and measure, since it is not difficult to God to 
say: There are so many drops in the sea and no 
more.' But the tears of the damned transcend all 
number and measure.'^ Alas, how we think not of 
these things, and how freely we sin and make our- 
selves guilty for a whole eternity, generally for the 
sake of a short and vile pleasure. 

But let us make our calculation also in this man- 
ner, while measuring the years of the damned. 
Suppose there is a strip of parchment of the width 
of a hand but so long that it encircles the circum- 
ference of the whole earth; suppose that this for its 
entire length is written over with numbers, continu- 
ous and closely joined to each other. Where is 
the mathematician who can express this number? 
Where is the mountain which can contain so many 
grains? Where the ocean which can possess so 



74 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

many drops of water? And yet this is not eternity. 
The latter extends further and does not suffer itself 
to be thus circumscribed: it is longer and more ex- 
tensive. But up to what point? To infinity. If 
your heart, O Christian, has not yet hardened into 
stone and rock, it is not possible that you think 
of this without shuddering at that immense abyss of 
eternity; if there is any feeling in you, it will be 
manifested here. But, as we have pointed out 
above, too few think on these things, and hence live 
as heedless of salvation as if there were no heaven, 
no God, no hell, no eternity; they let no day pass 
which they do not burden dovm with sins, as if they 
were striving for this alone, that on the last day 
of their life they might find the greatest possible 
number of sins. And trifling thus they approach 
eternity, just as if there were question of imprison- 
ment for only a few weeks. ^^Such as these," says 
Gregory, "amid joyous dancing perform deeds which 
will cause them tears, and smiling bring about their 
own death." truly, this is blindness and mad 
forgetfulness. For a very short life, for the shadow 
of eternity, we labor beyond our strength; for a true 
eternity of the happiest life we deign to labor, I do 
not say beyond our strength, but not even in propor- 
tion to it. But not to gain this life is to incur ever- 
lasting death, which, besides the fact that it is a 
torment more severe than all the torments of this 
life, has also this penalty, that in all eternity there 



CONSIDERATION IV 75 

will not be a single brief hour which will bring rest, 
much less an end of suffering. 



Ill 

EFFECTS OF MEDITATING ON ETERNITY 

It is this meditation on eternity that has made so 
many Christians, so many holy martyrs, ready and 
eager to endure any torments whatever, any death 
whatever ; so that although they were in the greatest 
sufferings and dripping with their own blood, yet 
they were so courageous and cheerful, and main- 
tained an expression so steadfast and a countenance 
so smiling that they mocked their torturers. They 
had in mind the eternal years. 

This it is that drove so many thousands of men, 
and among them many who were formerly ungodly, 
into the deserts and confined them in monasteries 
and cloisters; withdrew them from a life of luxury 
and pleasure to one that was severe and rigorous. 
They had in mind the eternal years. Furthermore, 
many religious persons now living could be named, 
who admit that because of this thought of eternity 
alone the whole world began to be distasteful and 
displeasing to them. Such was the blessed Teresa, 
the parent of the revival of religious fervor through- 
out Spain. 

This thought of eternity it is, also, that makes all 



76 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

things easy and delightful to religious men and 
women and to all others who embrace a rigorous 
rule of life. It convinces them that all labor is light 
and short; it gives a zest to their prayers, studies, 
and watches, and makes these duties loved; it tem- 
pers hunger and thirst, and assuages all the priva- 
tions of poverty; it makes rough garments, hard 
beds, disciplines, and all other austerities of life 
tolerable and pleasing. Whoever has in mind the 
eternal years and by daily meditation impresses them 
more and more deeply upon his soul, is overcome by 
no labor, is discouraged by no hardships. If to such 
a man you should offer a kingdom, if you should offer 
the greatest pleasures and delights, he would not 
take all these things in exchange for his own con- 
ditions, though it be the very poorest. Such a man 
complains about nothing, nor finds fault with any- 
one; he endures all things, submits to all things, for 
he constantly entertains this thought: "How slight 
a thing is this, and that; accordingly I shall suffer 
and endure it, for it will not last forever. It is only 
for a short hour that my enemies oppress me. Pro- 
ceed then, detractors; defame me, ye envious; I 
shall not shrink from you; this is your hour, this is 
the power of darkness; I wait for the day of the 
Lord, the eternal day. And why should I consume 
myself with lamentations? This whole life is a 
death which lasts but a single hour; the victory is 
not difficult, the triumph is eternal. Why should 



CONSIDERATION IV 77 

I dread the threats of the raging sea? Already I see 
the harbor. Now indeed the rains and the fury of 
the storms thunder upon the heads of the virtuous, 
but it will not be thus forever, except for the enemies 
of God. Daniel prophesies: ^Many of those that 
sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some unto 
life everlasting, and others unto reproach, to see 
it always' (Dan. XII, 2)." 

In the Old Law God instructing Moses says: 
"Make thee two trumpets of beaten silver. If thou 
sound but once, the princes and heads of the multi- 
tude of Israel shall come to thee; but if the sound 
of the trumpets be longer and with interruptions, 
they shall move forward" (Numb. X, 2-5). With 
these two trumpets are to be compared the two words 
Now and Always. The law of the world is: "Now 
let us be joyful, now let us seek delights, now let us 
enjoy good things while they are present: ^Come, let 
us crown ourselves with roses, before they be with- 
ered; now let us everywhere leave tokens of joy' 
(Wisd. II, 8-9)." Those who heed this one trumpet 
alone and listen attentively only to this Now, often 
live as if that Always were never to follow. Ac- 
cordingly, they do not move forward; in the midst 
of enjoyments they forget that they are pilgrims; 
whithersoever the evil tendencies of the flesh invite 
they willingly follow, wholly absorbed in heaping up 
wealth or in enjoying pleasures. The noise of that 
Now so smites their ears, that, deaf to the best ad- 



78 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

monitions, they do not hear that Always which is to 
follow. But those who with ears and mind listen to 
both these trumpets, as the Church daily causes 
them to resound many times, and who compare that 
very brief Now with the very long and eternal Al- 
ways, do not deliberate long, but move forward, live 
as pilgrims, restrain the flesh, remember that they 
are on a journey, and send before them to their 
country riches and pleasures, which they prefer to 
enjoy always in heaven than now on earth. It is 
certain that whoever with serious and attentive mind 
listens to the brief sound of the one trumpet and 
the longer sound of the other, and compares present 
things to future, those that pass to the eternal, soon 
prepares for his departure, looks around for his 
tomb, lays out his shroud, sets up his bier, arranges 
all things for his journey, everywhere remembers 
that he is on the road to eternity, and for this reason 
constantly interrogates himself thus: "Shall I be 
able to render an account to God of all my words, 
deeds and thoughts? And when shall I render it? 
What sentence will He pass upon me? I shall die 
now to myself, that I may live always to myself and 
to God." Well for that man who now in time and 
daily meditates thus on eternity. Whatever we do, 
we shall by this way and perhaps in a short time 
arrive at the gate of eternity, where we shall see all 
eternity before us. At the last hour of life death 
will place us at this door and will force us to enter. 



CONSIDERATION IV 79 

This the dying teach us often both by words and 
action. 

There died in the year of our Lord 1606, on 
March twenty-third, Justus Lipsius, a man famous 
for his learning and writings. He had often been 
accustomed, Uke Augustus, to wish for himself eu- 
thanasia, an easy death; also a soul free and fearless 
in that last extremity. Both his wishes were real- 
ized; for during only four days was he engaged in 
the supreme task of dying. In all this time he said 
not a single word about either his writings or his 
studies. On the contrary, when someone whispered 
to him that he had abundant cause for consolation 
from the teaching of the Stoics, he replied: "Those 
things are vain"; and, pointing towards an image of 
Christ crucified that stood near, said: "This is true 
patience"; then added with a deep sigh: "Lord 
Jesus, give me Christian patience." As soon as his 
sickness became serious, his first care was to cleanse, 
fortify and invigorate his soul by the sacraments of 
penance. Holy Eucharist and extreme unction, con- 
stantly and ardently requesting the prayers of the 
devout, and raising his dying eyes and hands on high 
thus piously prayed: "O Mother of God, assist your 
servant, struggling with all eternity, and abandon me 
not at this hour on which depends the eternal salva- 
tion of my soul." 

We have here, O Christian, a noble example of 
a Catholic man. Let us likewise daily demand the 



8o CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

same thing of Christ the Lord and the Blessed Virgin, 
Mother of God, and with burning soul let us say 
frequently each day: ^'O Christ Jesus, O Mother of 
God, assist your servant who is soon to struggle with 
all eternity, and abandon me not at that hour on 
which depends the eternal salvation of my soul." 



Consideration V 

HOW EVEN SOME WICKED PEOPLE 
MEDITATED ON ETERNITY 

AN ancient history of the Fathers relates that 
a religious, as he was meditating on that 
eighty-ninth Psalm, came at length to these 
words: ^Tor a thousand years in Thy sight are as 
yesterday, which is past" (Ps. LXXXIX, 4). He 
stopped here and could not quite understand how a 
thousand years and one short day could be compared 
with each other. They say that hereupon a little 
bird was sent by God, which so charmed the man 
by the sweetness of its singing that though he 
listened a very long time, he thought it had been 
scarcely an hour. "The spirit breatheth where it 
will." Not only many of the good have with holy 
David meditated on eternity, but also the wicked, 
and almost against their will. 

Benedict Renatus (Bk. V, Magni Ordinis Chris- 
tianor.) relates that a vain and impious man, named 
Fulco, who had been trained in strict accordance 
with the laws of the world, and was consequently 
unaccustomed both to fasts and vigils, suffered no 
privation to be imposed upon him in regard to sleep 

81 



82 CONSIDER.\TIONS ON ETERNITY 

as well as other things. However, there came a 
night when he was unable as at other times to sleep 
soundly. The unusual sleeplessness forced him to 
lie awake; he turned from side to side, and yet could 
not obtain sleep; he longed for daybreak. Here- 
upon, the spirit of the Lord began to breathe, al- 
though in an unknown land, for good thoughts were 
very rare with this man; and in the weariness caused 
by wakefulness he began to think of various things. 
This thought occurred to him among others: ^^What 
reward would you ask for lying here for two or three 
successive years in darkness, without friends, suffer- 
ing from a lingering disease, without amusement and 
revelings, in these bonds even though they be of 
feather, deprived also of the gaiety of banquets and 
theatres? Certainly I alone shall not depart from 
this life as one exceptional and immune; I shall be 
obliged to lie on a bed of sickness, whether I will it 
or not, unless I die a sudden and unexpected death, 
which may God avert!" (Here was the good inspira- 
tion, here the salutary thought.) "But what bed 
shall I have when death snatches me from my pres- 
ent one? My body will decay within the earth; it is 
this that I see happens to all others after death. 
But what shall become of my soul in the other 
world? Not all men, I suppose, assemble in the 
same place. Where then are these, and those? Are 
there not beside heaven avenging flames, is there 
not a hell? Alas, what kind of a bed will the 



CONSIDERATION V 83 

damned have there? How many years will they 
lie there? And once begun, in what year will these 
flames cease? Christ certainly not only threatens 
that the impious shall be sent into eternal fire, but 
also sends them; this fact is very clear, very certain! 
Therefore will they burn in flames eternally? 
Therefore, will not a thousand, and another and 
another thousand years suffice to wash away the sins 
of a short life? Therefore, will they during all 
eternity behold neither the sun, nor heaven, nor 
God, but be miserable eternally?" By such thoughts 
as these he became so sleepless and wakeful and 
reached such a point, that this eternity which he 
had thought on pursued him other nights and days. 
He wished to shake off these troublesome worms of 
the soul, but could not. He did not give up his 
amusements, cups, companions and revelings. Thus 
he listened less to the annoying complaints of con- 
science when he was among others; but when he 
returned to himself in solitude, he did not escape 
them. Eternity became fixed in his mind and beset 
him. At length he determined to amend his life and 
devote himself to better pursuits, saying to him- 
self: ^What am I doing here, wretch that I am? 
I am enjoying the world, and yet not enjoying it. 
I suffer many things against my will; I am deprived 
of many things which I would wish to have. I am 
a slave, but who will recompense my service? Up to 
the present I have easily seen what rewards the 



84 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

world bestows on one who has served it a long 
time. And granted that I enjoy whatever delights 
I could desire, how long will this last? I am cer- 
tain of life not even until tomorrow; daily funerals 
are sufficient proof of this. O eternity, if only you 
did not exist! O eternity, if you are passed out of 
heaven, you will be disagreeable and bitter even on 
the softest bed. With difficulty do we tear ourselves 
from those things to which we are accustomed; it is 
hard thus to renounce sumptuous banquets, gener- 
ous cups, dear companions; but if we hesitate, death 
comes and carries off all these things. Why then do 
you put off your resolution? Why do you not im- 
pose upon yourself a virtuous necessity? My de- 
cision is made; henceforth I shall be different or 
perish. This life of mine is too short, eternity too 
long. Now I must walk in another road. I shall 
not waver, but proceed along this road. Welcome 
me now, O divine eternity!" He carried out his 
resolution, and becoming a member of the order of 
the Cistercians he lived in the practice of virtue and 
died a holy death. 

O eternity, how few there are who reflect thus 
seriously upon you; fewer still who carefully ex- 
amine and become absorbed in you! All other 
things are sought: eternity alone is lightly valued. 
Riches are amassed, but they are fleeting and must 
be abandoned. Honors are solicited, but they must 
be relinquished in a short time. Pleasures are loved, 



CONSIDERATION V 85 

but only those that have an evil and bitter end. 
Rest is desired, but such as will not last. Friend- 
ship is sought, but such as death breaks off. There 
is ever3nvhere a craving for conversation, but not 
such as is in heaven. There is a longing for abun- 
dance, but in a place where it will fail. But if we 
would think of tener on eternity, certainly our desires 
would be less inflamed for things of such short dura- 
tion. I bring forward St. Bernard as a witness of 
this: ^Transitory things," he says, "are distasteful 
to him who yearns for things eternal" (Epist. 3). 

But there are some who speak glibly of a sort of 
eternity and declare that certain things are to be 
shunned eternally. Thus there are sometimes heard 
promises of this kind: "Forever shall I be on my 
guard against this place which I suspect and which 
is an occasion of sin to me. Forever shall I keep 
from that man, that woman, that associate in sin. 
Forever shall I avoid those revelings, those dances. 
It is enough to have sinned once, to have sinned so 
often, in this place and that, with this person and 
that." Your purpose is good, my friend, and be- 
cause you fear sin you rightly shun also the danger 
of sin. But would that so easily as you make your 
promise, you would so scrupulously keep it! Some- 
times scarcely a day or a few hours pass, when you 
do exactly the same thing which you have thus 
renounced and forsworn. This resolution must be 
made with consideration and courage. No rash 



86 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

promise should be made to God, but what has been 
promised must be kept scrupulously and persever- 
ingly. By very clear examples we are taught how 
God punishes us if we break a pledge given to Him. 



THE LABORS OF MAN AND THOSE OF 
THE SPIDER COMPARED 

There is another eternity, but a very bad one, 
which those men promise themselves who wish to 
build for themselves a heaven outside of heaven, 
and to be happy before they are dead. Wherefore 
Isaias says: "Hear the word of the Lord, ye scorn- 
ful men; for you have said: We have entered into a 
league with death, and we have made a covenant 
with hell" (Isaias XXVIII, 14-15). O madmen, 
how truly this eternity of yours is mere nothingness! 
There is nothing stable or lasting in this prison. 

The royal prophet fitly explains this when he 
says: "Our years shall be considered as a spider" 
(Ps. LXXXIX, 9). He could not have expressed it 
more briefly and better. For what else are all these 
years of ours but a continual exercise and a laborious 
exertion? The whole time of life is spent in vain 
labors, many sorrows, various fears, frequent sus- 
picions, and almost innumerable anxieties. As the 
spider, when she weaves thread with thread, so is 



CONSIDERATION V 87 

our labor linked together and continual; we sigh 
almost uninterruptedly, now that we may enjoy this 
pleasure, again that we may avert that trouble from 
us. We perform many works and undertake labo- 
rious tasks, not knowing, alas, that we are weaving 
a spider's web, with great labor, rarely with success 
and with no result. ^^Our years shall be considered 
as a spider." The spider laboriously begins her 
web, runs busily to and fro for a long time, goes 
round on this side and that, often returns to the 
same place, and consumes herself in completing that 
little wheel of manifold threads. She empties and 
disembowels herself in order to shape artistically 
that very airy little tent of hers. That she may 
suspend it aloft, fasten it and make it firm, she goes 
back and forth a thousand times, and does not spare 
her vitals but gladly expends them on this very thin 
web. But when this transparent and delicate 
gauze net now hangs in place and the work of weav- 
ing is completed, a slight stroke of the broom en- 
tirely destroys and wipes out all this labor. The 
poor little spider is either killed in its own web, 
or as if dragged to death by a rope will be trodden 
under foot. Thus the tiny insect has unknowingly 
either woven for itself a funeral shroud in which 
it may be wrapped, or fashioned a rope by which it 
may be killed. 

Just so, men, like the spider, exhaust themselves 
by many labors that they may mount to a high 



88 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

position, abound with pleasures, heap up wealth and 
retain and increase it. To these attempts they 
direct all the energies of their mind and often sacri- 
fice bodily health; they run hither and thither, 
weary themselves, toil, and wear themselves out 
like the spider by using up their vital energies; and 
when they have done all this, they have spiders' 
webs and a woven fabric to catch flies. Often they 
die while engaged in this work of theirs, and the 
days which they had hoped would be filled with 
enjoyment bring death; they find that to be a tomb 
which they thought a palace. Thus, our years are 
truly for the most part considered only as a spider. 
For we propose to do very many things, yet we ac- 
complish few, and those which we perform better 
generally have no enduring quality, and we usually 
fail to attain those for which we strive with so 
much effort. Therefore, there is no league with 
death, no covenant with hell. We all waste away 
and die. The worst thing is that thus blind we 
approach an eternity from w^hich we will never come 
forth. 

Guerricus once heard read in church the follow- 
ing passage from the book of Genesis: "All the time 
that Adam lived came to nine hundred and thirty 
years, and he died. And all the days of Seth were 
nine hundred and twelve years, and he died. And 
all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five 
years, and he died. And all the days of Mathusala 



CONSIDERATION V 89 

were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he 
died," etc. (Gen. V, 5, 8, 11, 27.) He hereupon 
became so imbued with the thought of death, and 
his mind was so strongly impressed by the fact 
that he too would die, that he at length bound him- 
self by the rules of St. Dominic in order to meet 
death more holily, and thus more safely to enter 
upon a blessed eternity, since no eternity can be 
experienced in this life. 



II 

WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION 
IN THE WORLD? 

St. Matthew relates that a young man came to 
Christ to propose a question. This young man was 
good, as may be inferred from St. Mark's narrative. 
Now he came, bending the knee, and questioned the 
Saviour in these words: "Good Master, what shall 
I do that I may receive life everlasting?" (Matt. 
XIX, 16; Mark X, 17). "Thou knowest the law," 
replied Christ, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep 
the commandments" (Matt. XIX, 17). At Philippi, 
a city of Macedonia, the keeper of the prison, fall- 
ing down at the feet of Paul and Silas, said: "Mas- 
ters, what must I do that I may be saved?" (Acts 
XVI, 30.) 

An excellent question indeed. These men could 



90 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

have asked nothing better, nothing more useful. 
But, O good God, where is this question found in 
the world? Continual questions flit about every- 
where, this one alone almost nowhere. Usually men 
betray themselves by their questions, and bring into 
full light either their simpHcity or their curiosity 
or some other hidden ailment of the soul. He who 
diligently inquires where good wine is sold makes 
it quite clear what the object of his care is. An- 
other inquires for that at which the listener cannot 
fail to blush. Here it is quite evident that the 
heart is filled with that with which the mouth over- 
flows. Questions everywhere abound, but how 
rarely does one man ask another: "Do you think this 
road leads to heaven?" 

It is a characteristic of all vices, but especially 
of lust and impurity, that when one is tending 
toward the ab3^ss and is beginning to sink, he does 
not readily ask with an earnest and sincere mind: 
"Shall I by this manner of living obtain a blessed 
eternity? Is it thus one reaches heaven?'' This is 
indeed the last question that those ask themselves 
to whom life is delightful and sweet, who experience 
but little sorrow and affliction, or who, if they do 
experience it, use every effort to avoid it. With 
them to suffer is the greatest evil ; let them only pos- 
sess present enjoyment, whatever happens to others, 
whatever may happen in that eternity of which they 
think not at all. They daily repeat these words: 



CONSIDERATION V 91 

^The heaven of heaven is the Lord's, but the earth 
He has given to the children of men." (Ps. CXIII, 
16.) Nor do they lack strength of body and mind 
with which to escape for the moment the attacks 
of men, but with the result that they fall without 
escape into the far-reaching hands of the supreme 
judge, and pay the longest penalties for their crimes. 
And if God by His most secret judgments rejects 
and condemns a man and permits him to live ac- 
cording to the pleasure of his unrestrained desires, 
He usually allows all things to prosper and turn out 
well for him, that the wretched man may not be 
punished twice, both here and hereafter, and that 
he may at once receive his reward for whatever good 
he has done. Concerning unfortunate men of this 
kind the royal psalmist speaks thus: "They are not 
in the labor of men; neither shall they be scourged 
like other men" (Ps. LXXII, 5). They shall walk 
in their own devices. And this, if any, is the most 
wretched condition of life; because God certainly 
does not spare one whom He has destined to lead 
into the way of that blessed eternity, but "fre- 
quently chastiseth him" (Ecclus. XXX, i). From 
innumerable witnesses I choose only one, but a great 
one; and I think that for many ages past nothing 
like it has been seen or heard. 



92 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 



III 

A REMARKABLE EXAMPLE OF HOW GOD PUNISHES 
HERE THAT HE MAY SPARE HEREAFTER 

In the year 1185 after our Lord's birth of the 
Virgin, Andronicus, Emperor of the East, in the 
third year of his reign was conquered by Isaac 
Angelus. Two iron chains were put upon his neck, 
he was burdened with shackles, subjected to the 
greatest insults, and after being thus treated was at 
length conducted to Isaac. Here he was charged 
with cruelty and tyranny, and permission was 
granted to all to do anything they wished to him. 
Those who were angry with him took pleasure in 
wreaking vengeance upon their enemy. Accord- 
ingly, they inflicted blows upon him, ignominiously 
beat his back, plucked his beard, pulled his hair, 
knocked out his teeth, then dragged him along 
in public. He was exposed to the mockery of all, 
and was struck even by the fists of women. His 
right hand was next cut off, and thus mutilated he 
was thrust into the prison of thieves and robbers, 
without food, without drink, without the service of 
anyone. After the lapse of a few days one of his 
eyes was dug out, and he himself, thus disgracefully 
treated and deformed, having only one eye and 
one hand, was clothed in a small and short tunic. 



CONSIDERATION V 93 

was dishonored by having his head shaved smooth, 
and was placed backward upon a mangy camel, his 
head in mockery wreathed with a crown of garlic 
and the camePs tail put in his left hand as a sceptre; 
and he was thus led in slow procession through the 
forum after the manner of a triumph. Hereupon 
the malicious and vile mob about the forum made 
a savage attack upon him, giving no consideration 
to the fact that only yesterday he had been emperor, 
crowned with a royal diadem, praised, courted, 
sought after, reverenced by all; and that they them- 
selves had by oath pledged their loyalty and good- 
will to him. Rage furnished arms to all: some 
struck his head with clubs, others filled his nostrils 
with filth, others squeezed upon his face sponges 
filled with the foulest substances, others beat his 
sides with javelins. Some attacked him with stones, 
others with mud; others called him a mad dog, a 
dolt and stupid fellow. A shameless woman, taking 
from her kitchen a pot filled with boiling water, 
poured it upon the head of the emperor as he 
passed. There was no one who did not maltreat 
him. He was at length conducted to the theater 
amid the greatest mockery, and then taken from 
the camel and hung by the feet between two 
columns. He who had already suffered a thousand 
evils now behaved himself as a truly Christian man 
and hero; he was not heard to utter lamentations 
and waiKngs, nor to accuse fortune; and to no pur- 



94 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

pose would he have done this. He began to settle 
his accounts with God, and to pray for the pardon 
of his faults; for he repeatedly uttered only these 
words: ^Tord, have mercy; Lord, have mercy." 

O Andronicus, wretched because you are forced 
to endure such great sufferings; happy because you 
bear them patiently, and recognize that thus your 
sins must be expiated. But not even when he was 
thus suspended did the maddened crowd spare him 
as long as life remained in him. Tearing off his 
tunic, they attack and lacerate him with their hands 
in various ways. One, more savage than the rest, 
drove a sword through his body into his vitals, as he 
hung there. Two others, to test whose sword was 
the sharper, exerting themselves with both hands, 
pierced his body in the back. Hereupon the 
wretched emperor with great effort put his mutilated 
right arm to his mouth in order, as many thought, 
to suck from it the warm blood which was still 
dripping from the recent wound. Thus, pitiably he 
laid down his life. After several days had passed 
his body was taken from the gibbet and cast under 
an arch of the theater, like that of a beast, until 
some more humane persons transferred it to another 
place; yet Isaac permitted no one to bury it. O 
Andronicus, O Emperor of the East, how great a 
grace did God confer upon you in willing that you 
suffer these things for a few days, that you might 
not perish for all days! You were wretched for a 



CONSIDERATION V 95 

short time that you might not be so eternally. Nor 
do I doubt that you had in mind the eternal years, 
since you bore these sufferings with so much forti- 
tude. 

The above facts have been recorded by Nicetas 
Choniates, who lived in that age, and who praises 
Andronicus also for the fact that he was most 
steadfast in the Catholic faith and at the same time 
most devout to St. Paul, the Apostle, whose Epistles 
he was accustomed to have at hand and always open. 
The apostle did not suffer this service to pass un- 
rewarded. He took care of his client, Andronicus, 
whose image of the apostle, adorned with gold and 
placed in a sacred shrine, was seen to weep copiously 
when ruin threatened its owner. This miracle An- 
dronicus himself immediately received as a message 
of coming disaster. 

O Christians, have in mind the eternal years. 
Thus, whatever evils must be borne you will bear 
far more easily; for whatever is compared with eter- 
nity will seem short. ^Tor that which is at present 
momentary and light of our tribulation, worketh for 
us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of 
glory" (2 Cor. IV, 17). Hence Augustine thus 
earnestly exclaims and prays: "Lord, here burn, here 
cut, provided Thou spare for eternity." And St. 
Fulgentius, although very holy, when near his death, 
for seventy days before he died repeatedly cried out: 
"Lord, grant me only patience, and afterwards par- 



96 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

don.'' These were his words and prayers until ne 
expired. Certainly God spares least of all those 
whom He has decreed to keep with Him during all 
eternity. 



Consideration VI 

HOW THE HOLY FATHERS, THE CHURCH, 

AND THE SCRIPTURES INSIST ON 

THE NECESSITY OF MEDITATING 

ON ETERNITY 

IT is a Catholic ceremony to offer prayers and 
hold processions on certain days of the year for 
the purpose of advancing the honor of God and 
the saints. The demon is jealous of this: he also 
has his followers who make supplications and go 
about. The royal prophet saw these: "The wicked 
walk round about" (Ps. XI, 9). They so dispose 
their lives that they go from feast to feast, from 
pleasure to pleasure, from crime to crime. This is 
their round ; and when they think that this round of 
iniquity is almost complete and their circle of 
wickedness is in some way rounded out, they begin 
again; they return to their former and old time prac- 
tices until death, uninvited, comes upon them as 
they thus go round. 

The children of Job made this law among them- 
selves, that they should pass the days of feasting 
in rotation, and be invited each by the others. 
Their good parent rightly noticed that this succes- 

97 



98 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

sion of feastings would scarcely be without sin, 
"wherefore he sent to them and sanctified them, and 
rising up early offered holocausts for every one of 
them" (Job i, s). Therefore, as the wicked re- 
joice in a round of pleasures and pass their days 
in good things, so God will make for them a round, 
but perpetual, in torments, eternal. This same 
thing blessed David foresaw: "For thy arrows pass; 
the voice of thy thunder in a wheel" (Ps. LXXVI, 
18-19). Famine, war, pestilence, tribulations, dis- 
eases, calamities, death itself; in fine, all advers- 
ities which afflict us before our first death, are the 
arrows of God. But they fly past, they are winged, 
they quickly speed from these persons to those, 
and then to others. But the voice of thunder, the 
voice of divine wrath and fury in the prisons of hell, 
will move round like a wheel, and this for eternal 
ages. This wheel, as if it were filled with torment- 
ing dust, when once it has been set on fire, will burn 
for all eternity. "A fire is kindled in my wrath, 
and I shall burn even to the lowest hell" (Deut. 
XXXII, 22). There is another round, and this 
too eternal — from indescribable cold to intense 
heat, and from this again there will be a return to 
the former. "Let him pass," says Job, "from the 
snow waters to excessive heat" (Job XXIV, 19). 
This is more clearly denoted by the gnashing of 
teeth and weeping of the eyes (Matt. XXII, 13). 
That we may more fully describe this horrible and 



CONSIDERATION VI 99 

incomprehensible wheel of eternity, order demands 
that we point out in what way the Holy Fathers 
agree in this matter with the Church, and she in 
turn with the Sacred Scriptures. Various admoni- 
tions are given by them, attending to which we 
shall not easily forget eternity. 



ANSWERS OF THE HOLY FATHERS AND THE CHURCH 
ON THIS SUBJECT 

Of the entire number of the holy Fathers five 
especially, who lived at different times, are to be 
listened to, namely, Augustine, Chrysostom, Greg- 
ory, Bernard, and Lawrence Justinian. 

Here is the first question, but one which seems 
vain and foolish: Which is easier or more toler- 
able — to endure for three days pains in the head, 
eyes, teeth, to suffer from gall-stones or pains in 
the vitals, or to undergo any other bodily sufferings 
whatever, and night and day not to know sleep, to 
be tortured almost without any respite; or merely 
to eat a small portion of fish in which gall has been 
mixed. A ridiculous and most unprofitable ques- 
tion indeed! How much sweeter it is to devour an 
entire fish of this kind saturated with gall, than to 
endure such pains even for a single day. The bit- 
terness of the fish will not deprive one of life, nor 



100 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

will it generate disease; the mouth only, which dis- 
likes what is bitter, will loudly complain. This is 
a correct answer; nevertheless, how many thousand 
men choose the first, either in words or in very 
deed? How often in exhortations, in confessions, 
in sermons is the following truth proclaimed, how 
eloquently and openly is it preached: ^^Behold, the 
eternal salvation of your soul is at stake; eternal 
torments await you, if you continue to advance on 
this road. Christ pointed out another, traversed 
another; return, then, come to your senses; long 
enough have you strayed. It depends on your own 
will whether you are to enjoy heaven or be excluded 
therefrom. God is never wanting to those who have 
good will. Abstinence and fasting, confession of 
sins, chastisement of the body, custody of the senses 
and victory over one's self have indeed some bitter- 
ness; a chaste and pure life is not a very easy task 
for any one. But whatever our lot, each has some- 
thing to endure. ^Ought not Christ to have suffered 
and so to enter into his glory?' (Luke XXIV, 26). 
Let not short labor terrify. It is necessary to act 
and to suffer with fortitude for a few short years or 
perhaps only days; rest and joy will be eternal. He 
conquers all things who conquers himself, who re- 
strains himself, who violently resists his evil emo- 
tions, and does all this for heaven, for Christ, for 
a most blessed eternity. Christ after His resurrec- 
tion set before His disciples a fish laid on burning 



CONSIDERATION VI loi 

coals, by which He wished to teach them how great 
sufferings they must still endure; that a pleasant and 
delightful life was not to be expected; that they 
were to be stoned, scourged, crucified, flayed, since 
this life must be passed with a view to a joyous 
resurrection hereafter and an eternity among the 
blessed. All things which we see are trifling and 
insignificant, and are not to be compared with im- 
mortal beatitude, which is not yet seen." 

These admonitions are uttered but are not heeded. 
Here is that fish saturated with gall, which is so 
often set before men in sermons and in books. For 
these thoughts and others like them are often insisted 
upon and inculcated, are read and heard, and yet 
are not believed, are esteemed of small account, are 
buried beneath other cares, and forgotten. And 
how often also conscience itself plays the part of a 
preacher and brings forward these salutary warn- 
ings, insists, exhorts, pricks? Yet it effects nothing; 
all is in vain. For many are persuaded neither by 
preacher nor by conscience. On the contrary, they 
oppose conscience and are guided by their own 
maxims, saying: ^Tet us only be well off here; the 
future is uncertain; only let the present be enjoy- 
able; none of the dead return, for there is no one 
who is known to have come back from hell; come, 
therefore, let us enjoy good things." These are 
their oft-repeated strains. But let Augustine answer 
the proposed question: "Better," he says, "is a little 



102 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

bitterness in the mouth than eternal torment in the 
vitals." Just so, it is truly better to pay in this 
world rather than in the next the debts one has 
contracted; far preferable is it to exercise the body 
here for sixty or seventy years by continual and 
daily fasts, scourgings, and hair shirts, than to be 
detained there even one day in torments. But let 
another of the Holy Fathers come forward. 

St. Chrysostom proposes a second question. "If 
anyone," he says, "within the period of a hundred 
years had had on a single night only a sweet and 
pleasant dream, and were punished a hundred years 
for this, would such a dream be worth desiring? 
But," he continues, "what this dream is when com- 
pared to a hundred years, that the present life is 
when compared to the future; nay, it is much less. 
And what a drop of water is when compared to 
the sea, that a thousand years are when compared 
to the eternity to come." (Hom. 20, Ad Pop.) 
Elsewhere, in confirmation of this he says: "What 
will you compare to infinite time? What are ten 
thousand years when you think of infinite ages? 
Are they not as the tiniest drop compared to an 
abyss? Do not look for an end after this life, where 
repentance will be of no avail as a remedy, where 
tears will fall but will profit naught. Although 
one should there gnash with his teeth, although he 
should stretch forth his burning tongue, no one will 
let fall from his finger a drop of water, but the 



CONSIDERATION VI 103 

sufferer will hear the words addressed to the rich 
man in the Gospel. Granted, therefore, that we 
have been at leisure for pleasure during all our 
life, yet what is this compared to infinite ages? 
For here both good and evil have an end, but there 
there are everlasting pains; here, if the body is 
burned, the soul leaves it; but there, when the body 
rises incorrupt, the soul will burn forever; for sinners 
will rise incorrupt, not that they may be honored, 
but that they may everlastingly remain in torments." 
(Hom. 28, In Epist. ad. Hebr.) 

After Chrysostom, St. Gregory answers the ques- 
tion which is usually put thus: Does not intoxication 
produce its effect more quickly when one drinks 
in the cellar near the wine-casks than in the dining 
room? The heavenly spouse proclaims by the 
mouth of Solomon: ^^The king brought me into the 
cellar of wine; he set in order charity in me" 
(Cant. II, 4). Upon these words St. Gregory dis- 
courses thus: "By the cellar of wine what do we 
understand more suitably than the secret contem- 
plation of eternity? And certainly, whoever lets 
this thought of eternity sink more deeply into his 
mind, will be able to declare: ^He set in order char- 
ity in me'; for he will observe a better order of 
love, by loving himself less, God more intensely 
and fervently, and even his very enemies for God's 
sake. But this thought has the following effect 
also: that he who tastes of it a little more generously 



104 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

becomes intoxicated, but with an intoxication of the 
best desires, which lead only to amendment of life, 
to the heavenly country, to eternal delights. The 
Apostles were reproached with being intoxicated 
with new wine; they were, to be sure, but from this 
cellar of charity." Although St. Gregory often men- 
tions eternity, yet his briefest and truest statement 
about it is this: ^^Momentary is that which delights; 
eternal that which tortures." Here rightly might 
anyone desire with Job: ^^Who will grant me that 
they may be marked down in a book with an iron 
pen?" (Job XIX, 23), I mean these very words: 
^'Momentary is that which delights; eternal that 
which tortures." The book suitable for this writ- 
ing is the heart of man; the iron pen, serious medi- 
tation; the purple ink, the Blood of Christ. And 
these words, thus engraved on the heart, must then 
especially be pondered on and more frequently re- 
peated, when pleasure attracts, when passion incites, 
when luxury entices, when the flesh is rebellious, 
when the spirit grows weak, when there is occasion 
or danger of sin. 

In the fourth place comes St. Bernard, who will 
now make answer to a question which should have 
been stated before. Human life is such that men 
have very different feelings, just as they have very 
different countenances. There are found some who 
are continually and deeply afflicted, so that they 
think that they must almost succumb to affliction. 



CONSIDERATION VI 105 

Poverty overwhelms and disturbs one, sickness an- 
other, secret debts another, cares another, injuries 
or calumnies another; so that those who are pusil- 
lanimous and impatient sometimes wish for death, 
hasten to the river or look for a rope; for these 
wretched beings think that they can thus put an end 
to tribulations, whereas they hereby make a begin- 
ning of sufferings to which no end will be granted. 
Others, on the contrary, full of virtue and most ready 
to do the will of God in all things, have no particular 
desire either to die quickly or to live long. Does 
God wish them to die? They, too, entertain the 
same wish. Does He wish them to die quickly? 
This they also wish. Does He wish them to live 
long? They do not oppose His will. Thus, to will 
and not to will with God is to them the same thing. 
Besides these two classes of men there is the great 
majority of those who desire a long life; and there 
is scarcely any man so old that he does not hope and 
desire to live at least a year. Among these men 
there is almost no weariness of life; for them death 
hastens too much, approaches too soon, and is be- 
lieved to come before its time. Here it may be 
asked: What men live or are likely to live the 
longest? St. Bernard, commenting on this divine 
promise: "I will fill him with length of days" 
(Ps. XC, 16), exclaims in wonder: ^What is so 
long as that which is eternal? What so long as that 
which is cut short by no end? A good end is life 



io6 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

eternal; a good end is that which has no end." He 
adds: ^That is a true day which knows no setting; 
truth is eternal, eternity true, forming a true and 
eternal alliance" (Serm. 17). Accordingly, we must 
say that those only will live a truly long life who 
will never die in heaven; and those will die a death, 
alas, too prolonged who will always die, who will 
never live in hell, although they live there always. 
St. Lawrence Justinian will explain the last ques- 
tion to us. There are very many things in this 
world which nature has so assigned to one place or to 
a certain number of places, that they cannot be 
found in others. Of flowers belonging to the New 
World only the seed can be procured; of many ani- 
mals only the hide. Eternity is a thing belonging so 
entirely to the other world that we can have here 
only its seed. What, therefore, is the seed of eter- 
nity? "The seeds of eternity," says St. Lawrence 
Justinian, "are these: contempt of self, the gift of 
charity, a relish for the works of Christ. Contempt 
for others is a tree which covers the whole earth, 
and grows most extensively before the fires of hell. 
Contempt for self is both the smallest seed and 
least known to the world. It was this that brought 
Christ from heaven, who ^emptied Himself, taking 
the form of a servant and becoming obedient,' not 
only to the stable and the manger, but even to Cal- 
vary, to the cross, to death, to the tomb, to Limbo; 
'for which cause God also hath exalted Him' (Philip. 



CONSIDERATION VI 107 

II, 7-9). Behold, this seed has grown into the 
most luxuriant vine, into the tallest of all trees." 
(De Obed. 26.) 

The same blessed Patriarch mentioning charity 
says: "According to the measure of charity is the 
glory of the eternal reward. For ^to whom less is 
forgiven, he loveth less' (Luke VII, 47). He ob- 
tains less grace who has less charity; but where 
there is less grace, there will be also less glory'' 
(De Disciplin. et Convers. Monas.). Thus, then, 
the more you love God, the more you heap up for 
yourself eternal rewards. The whole law is love, 
but a love that is pure, chaste and divine. 

The third seed of eternity is a relish for the 
works of Christ. In regard to students of rhetoric 
it is a recognized fact that those who have a taste 
for Cicero should be considered to be making prog- 
ress; just so can it be affirmed that they are ad- 
vancing in virtue to whom the divine teachings of 
Christ are not distasteful. Whoever finds scarcely 
any relish in the words, deeds, and life of Christ, 
who is not affected by them, does not take delight 
in them, is not moved by those things which pertain 
to the soul and to piety, to beatitude and divine 
things; but who finds eating, drinking, walking, 
laughing, jesting, and playing much to his taste; 
such a man may safely say to himself: "O my God, 
how truly there is in me no seed of eternity! For 
when I descend into myself, I clearly detect there 



io8 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

to what a deadly spirit I am subject, and whither 
my affection invites me. To lead the dance, to 
cheer myself with banquets, to watch late over the 
cups, to set in motion the dice-box and the dice, 
to listen to vanities and gossip, to read impure 
pages, to applaud love songs, to be outdone in 
nothing by my companions — all this I can do, this 
is pleasing and delightful to me. But to hear or 
read much about Christ, about the watchings and 
fastings of the saints, is unpleasant and disagreeable. 
Scarcely do I remain during an entire sermon; its 
one short hour seems longer than all others, and 
so it must be whiled away with sleep or conversa- 
tion." It is easy to pronounce sentence on such a 
man as this: in him there is no relish for the works 
of Christ. But let us consider the mind of the 
Church on eternity. 

The Church esteems so highly the memory of 
eternity, that there is no psalm, prayer, or hymn 
which does not end with the mention of eternity. 
Hence the perpetual and solemn closing of the 
Psalms: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and 
to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning (that 
is, before all beginning, from eternity without any 
beginning), is now and ever shall be, ages without 
end, innumerable, incomprehensible. I pass over 
the vestments, rites, and sacred ceremonies, of which 
not a few emphasize the same memory of eternity. 
But let us proceed from the rivulets to the very 
fountain-head. 



CONSIDERATION VI 109 

II 

THE CLEAR TESTIMONY OF THE INSPIRED WRITINGS 
ON ETERNITY 

I bring forward only three witnesses: a prophet, 
an apostle, an evangelist. 

How many complaints are daily heard from men 
who are abandoned and despised by all! Every- 
where may be found someone who says: "Alas, for 
me, how few friends I count, because I am poor; 
I am regarded by all as of no importance; every- 
where I am scorned and almost trodden under foot 
by all." Wait, my friend, a little while, and suffer; 
not yet have the suns of all days set; wait for the 
divine promise. Baruch declares: "God will clothe 
thee with the double garment of justice, and will 
set a crown on thy head of everlasting honor" 
(Baruch V, 2). 

There are some who find fault with the laws of 
nature, and complain that a long life has been 
granted to crows and too short a one to man. Listen, 
you who thus complain: there still remains another 
life, when this brief and vain life is over. Believe 
Blessed Paul when he testifies: "We know, if our 
earthly house of this habitation be dissolved, that 
we have a building of God, a house not made with 
hands, eternal in heaven" (2 Cor. V, i). What so 
great loss is it, then, if this little clay hut of our 



no CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

body fall to ruin, since there is prepared for us a 
golden palace which will never crumble? 

To the testimony of the prophet and the apostle 
is added that of the evangelist St. Matthew, by 
whose mouth Christ utters these words: '^If thy hand 
or thy foot scandalize thee, cut it off and cast it 
from thee. It is better for thee to go into life 
maimed or lame, than having two hands or two 
feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thy 
eye scandalize thee, pluck it out and cast it from 
thee. It is better for thee, having one eye to enter 
into life, than having two eyes to be cast into hell 
fire'' (Matt. XVIII, 8-9). Ofire! Ohell! O eter- 
nity! Any temporal loss whatsoever, compared to 
the loss of eternity, is gain, not loss. In this sense 
Christ gives as it were his signature to the pledge 
or contract recorded in the words of St. Matthew: 
"Everyone that hath left house, or brethren, or sis- 
ters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or 
lands, for my name's sake shall receive an hundred- 
fold, and shall possess life everlasting" (Matt. XIX, 
29). Is not this promise regarding a happy eter- 
nity sufficiently clear, since that hundredfold is 
given as a pledge? Moreover, when Christ, in the 
same evangelist, forewarns about the last judgment, 
he three times makes distinct mention of eternity: 
eternal punishment, eternal fire, and eternal life. 

Pachomius weighed these truths in profound medi- 
tation. After undergoing many labors in a desolate 



CONSIDERATION VI iii 

hermitage, he thought out a new way of sleeping, 
or rather of watching. For fifteen years he never 
took any sleep reclining in his hut, or lying down, 
or resting on any support; but he sat in the middle 
of his cell, unsupported on all sides, so that neither 
his back nor his side leaned against the wall, and if 
sleep tried to overpower him, it came upon him in 
this posture, not lying down, not comfortably reclin- 
ing, but refusing to be overcome. The holy man 
suffered much by this persistency in watchings, yet 
he bore with cheerfulness this most difficult struggle 
against sleep, enjoying by hope a foretaste of that 
eternal rest in heaven. Therefore, meditation on 
the everlasting rest induced Pachomius to reckon as 
delight sleeping on the ground and having the earth 
as a bed. 

Since, therefore, the Holy Fathers, the Church, 
and the Scriptures set before us in different ways 
the necessity of meditating on eternity, it is now the 
duty of each of us who wishes to be eternal in 
heaven, to reflect seriously as follows: "O my God, 
hitherto how rarely and how indifferently have I 
thought of eternity, although each hour brings me 
nearer to eternity. Hereafter, in a matter so serious 
I shall trifle less, and if I notice that many things 
happen according to my wishes and that prosperity 
and success attend my undertakings, my next 
thought will be: And how long will this last? Will 
the weather be always so fair? Will Phoebus and 



112 CONSIDEEIATIONS ON ETERNITY 

fortune always smile thus? And what reward will 
the eternity so soon to follow bestow upon me for 
this happiness, which is sweet but brief, pleasing 
but dangerous? But if adversity comes upon me, 
if many things happen contrary to my desires, if 
I am afflicted and tormented, if on this side and 
that evils and misfortunes conspire against me, rush 
in upon me, and disturb me, I shall constantly enter- 
tain this one thought: Let the tempest only accom- 
plish the commands of the fates, let this great and 
angry sea grow rough, let the winds of affliction roar, 
the waves of tribulation lash, the clouds of temp- 
tation threaten, the darkness of sorrow overshadow, 
let the world be shattered and fall to ruins; there 
will not always be ruins; there will not always be 
storms; these winds will at some time be calmed; 
these waves will subside; rain and hail will be 
dispelled: in fine, whatever I suffer here will not 
last eternally. My cross shall fall, at least when 
I fall a victim of death. But more tempestuous 
than all storms is it to be condemned to eternal 
flames. This indeed is a long torment; all other 
things which are outside eternity are brief, fleeting, 
momentary. They are shadows and a dream, says 
Chrysostom, whatever be their nature. Let us hope 
and look for the things beyond. And how does 
Christ impress upon his disciples this little while? 
He says that all His torments and His most bitter 
death on the cross are for a little while. He declares 



CONSIDERATION VI 113 

that all the labors of the Apostles and their violent 
death by tortures are for a little while. Why then 
does not whatever I suffer seem to me, too, to be 
but for a little while, even if I should suffer it for a 
hundred years? "For yet a little and a very little 
while, and he that is to come will come, and will 
not delay" (Hebr. X, 37). Thus, therefore, shall I 
proceed, and I shall judge this one thing only neces- 
sary: to do nothing against conscience, nothing 
against God. All his affairs are safe to whom a 
happy eternity is assured. 



Ill 

ALL THINGS EXCEPT ETERNITY LAST BUT FOR A 
LITTLE WHILE 

Whatever labor or pain we must endure here lasts 
truly for a very little while. St. Augustine says: 
"This little while seems long to us because it is 
still going on; only when it is completed shall we 
know how little it was" (Tract. loi. In loannem). 

The wisest of men, that he might with his own 
pen describe the entire period of human life, even 
though it should extend to a hundred years, chose 
the most minute things to express it; for it is stated 
thus clearly in Ecclesiasticus: "The number of the 
days of men at the most are a hundred years: as a 
drop of water of the sea are they esteemed; and as 



114 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

a pebble of the sand, so are a few years compared to 
eternity'' (Ecclus. XVIII, 8). Why do you applaud 
yourselves, you ancients, and you old men of a hun- 
dred years? What are all our years? A pebble of 
the sand and a drop of water of the sea. And 
what is a pebble compared to very high mountains 
of sand? And v/hat is a drop compared to the very 
deep abyss of the sea? Thus your fifty, sixty, or 
a hundred years, O old men, are a little while, are 
nothing compared to that day of endless eternity. 
And yet we thus glory in this pebble and this 
little drop of water. O vain and wretched crea- 
tures! Our life is a pebble, and not a valuable 
one, not one of gold and precious stone, but of 
sand. Our life is a drop of water, and not of sweet 
water, but of the briny sea. "All his days are 
full of sorrows and miseries; even in the night he 
doth not rest in mind," says Ecclesiastes (II, 23). 
St. Augustine says truly: "Consider the years from 
Adam up to the present day; scan the Scriptures. 
It was almost yesterday that Adam fell from Para- 
dise. For where are the times that are past? If 
you had lived from the time when Adam was ex- 
pelled from Paradise even up to the present day, 
you would surely see that your life had not been of 
long duration, since it passed away thus. But how 
long is the life of each individual man? Add as 
many years as you please; draw out the longest old 
age; what is it? Is it not the breath of the morn- 



CONSIDERATION VI 115 

ing?" (In Ps. XXXVI). All this is most true. For 
tell me pray, where now is Adam? Where now 
is Cain? Where the aged Mathusala? Where 
Noe? Where Sem? Where Heber? Where the 
most obedient Abraham? Where Jacob? Where 
Joseph? Their lives are ended: the Trojans have 
perished. Thus passes life; thus passes the glory 
of the world. O dew! O vanity! Why do you 
strive, why do you hope for things of long duration? 
Whatever you see here is brief; it is for a little 
while; it is worthless; it is a mere point. Truly did 
Gregory the Great say: ^'The entire length of the 
present life is understood to be a point, since it 
comes to an end." In the twinkling of an eye all 
things are contained. ^'I have seen an end of all 
perfection: thy commandment is exceeding broad'^ 
(Ps. CXVIII, 96). Why then do we say that time 
is long? For the past is gone; the future does not 
yet exist; and what is the present? A single hour 
is divided into parts that quickly flee; whatever por- 
tion of it has flitted away, is past; whatever of it 
remains, is future. Where then is the time which 
we call long? Quite rightly did St. Bernard im- 
press upon his disciples (and upon you too, my dear 
reader) this very true admonition of St. Jerome: 
"No labor ought to seem hard, no time long, by 
which the glory of eternity is gained." 

But however short and brief may be the time 
of this life compared to eternity, yet no one of the 



ii6 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

damned will be able to accuse God, because He did 
not give him a longer life; they will all condemn 
themselves because they did not lead a better life. 
"For among the dead there is no accusing of life'' 
(Ecclus. XLI, 7). Those deserving damnation 
would live long enough if they lived virtuously 
enough. 

At this point, my Christian friend, I should like 
to converse with you a little more candidly and 
confidentially, and place before your eyes a matter 
which should be seen most clearly. You say that 
you often think of heaven, and by strong desires 
aspire to eternity. You say this, to be sure; but 
I deny, and deny most emphatically, that such are 
your sentiments; and I would bid you not to believe 
me, if I affirmed the same thing about myself. For 
how is it possible, my good Christian, that you and 
I should think frequently and seriously of heaven 
and aspire to eternity with such great desires as 
we boast that we do, yet meanwhile live so torpid 
and cold, so sluggish, so feeble for good, so active 
and ardent for evil, so ready and willing for all 
wickedness; men complaining and indolent, never 
more remiss than when we should show anger, never 
more pusillanimous than when we should suffer. 
At the slightest affliction, the least expression of 
disapproval, we are disturbed and downcast; at a 
single word all our patience melts and flows away. 
Never are we more despondent than when many 



CONSIDERATION VI 117 

things happen against our will. I shall pass over in 
silence the other sores hidden in the soul, namely, 
lust and envy. And we, being such fine men as 
I have described, so timid when we should be brave, 
so bold when we should be timid, nevertheless boast 
that we often have in our mind and in our desires 
the joys of eternity. Indeed, this is most difficult 
to believe: that we frequently reflect on heaven and 
eternity, and meanwhile do not live with better 
morals. Not only is it difficult to believe this, but 
to speak correctly, it is impossible. And I shall 
now prove this. 

The Patriarch Jacob served his uncle Laban seven 
years for his daughter Rachel, ^^and they seemed 
but a few days because of the greatness of his love" 
(Gen. XXIX, 20). Do you hear this, you who 
complain? You serve, not an impostor as Laban 
was, but God, your creator, who is most faithful 
to His promises. You serve, not for a wife, but for 
the whole kingdom of heaven; not for a wife's 
beauty, but for the eternal vision of God; not for 
a yife's caresses, but for celestial and eternal de- 
lights. And yet an annoyance lasting for even a 
single day so weakens you that at once all your love 
for heaven and for God begins to grow cold. As 
soon as adversities assail you, you break out into the 
most voluble complaints, call upon heaven and earth, 
breathe revenge; and perhaps your complaint does 
not always spare divine justice itself. Again, the 



ii8 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

enticements of pleasure sometimes so enfeeble you, 
that forgetting the divine service and entering the 
labyrinth of sin, which is attractive on the outside, 
you relax in a deadly sleep. Is this your vigilance? 
Is this the heroic greatness of your love? Where 
are those seven hard years endured in the divine 
service? O Simon, Simon, can you not thus watch 
one hour with your Master? But hear more about 
the Patriarch Jacob. Deceived by Laban by a 
marriage with Lia who was blear-eyed, he served the 
same impostor seven years more for Rachel who 
had been promised to him; and there is no doubt 
that these seven years also seemed but a few days 
because of the same greatness of his love. And we 
may believe that often when, weary from labor, he 
cast his eyes upon Rachel's beauty, he said silently 
to himself: ^This beauty is certainly worth a service 
of seven years, however irksome it may be. If 
necessary, I shall not refuse to endure for her sake 
this hard service for seven years more." Thus the 
force of his love softened all the hardship of labor. 
Do you disdain this example, soldier of Christ, 
and do you still murmur? You are bidden to serve 
God for the sake of God Himself, to labor for the 
sake of eternal rest; you are called to endurance and 
patience for the sake of immortal happiness, and 
do you still complain, like a lazy sleeper? Count, 
please, the years which you have devoted wholly 
to the service of God. See whether you have for 



CONSIDERATION VI 119 

twenty years served God as faithfully and indus- 
triously as Jacob served Laban. You will find that 
your service comprises scarcely that number of 
months or days. Count the nights spent in prayer, 
review the days passed in holy labors. Will you be 
able to say to God what Jacob said to his father-in- 
law: ^^Day and night I was parched with heat and 
with frost, and sleep departed from my eyes. And 
in this manner have I served thee in thy house 
twenty years: fourteen for thy daughters and six for 
thy flocks" (Gen. XXXI, 40-41). Have you, O 
Christian, served God thus for twenty years? Do 
you know what is to be the reward of your labor? 
Not the daughters of Laban, not flocks of sheep; 
but the reward of your service will be God Himself; 
you shall have complete happiness of soul and body; 
you shall abound in joys innumerable and immense, 
which never fail, which cause no weariness, which 
have no end; you shall be as it were immersed in 
overflowing delights. And yet behold your hands, 
which are most feeble for labor; look at your feet, 
which are most slow to go to church; look into 
your heart, which is mad with envy, seething with 
wrath and revenge, groveling in filthy thoughts, 
lazy through sloth and impatience. Is it thus you 
serve God for the sake of heaven, of immortal life, 
of eternal beatitude? Why do you not do as Jacob 
did, and look upon the Rachel promised to you, 
when there creeps upon you disgust for the labor 



120 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

you have undertaken? As often, therefore, as you 
are troubled, and either adversity oppresses or pros- 
perity allures you, or labors are burdensome, raise 
your eyes to heaven and comfort yourself thus: 
^^Behold, that Rachel of yours is exceedingly beauti- 
ful and comely. She is all fair and there is no spot 
in her. Behold heaven, behold the home of rest 
and eternal delight. Endure now for a little while 
pains that are not the most intense, labors that are 
not the greatest, and you will shortly be there, and 
will be so much the more joyful and happy, as 
now you have been sadder and more afflicted. Then 
that rest will be the more delightful to you, the 
more laborious your life now has been. Therefore, 
work courageously, suffer steadfastly; a blessed eter- 
nity is worth all this." 

If, O Christian, you would oftener encourage 
yourself thus, if with such a gaze you would more 
frequently look up to heaven, and with this affec- 
tion daily think on eternity; I assure you, the days 
of service would seem few to you, because of the 
greatness of your love for this eternity. You would 
say that all labor was easy to you; you would 
reckon all troubles as a favor; you would count all 
adversities as gain. Everyone orders his present life 
more holily, the more attentively he reflects on the 
eternity to come. 



Consideration VII 
HOW CHRISTIANS REPRESENT ETERNITY 

ONE must walk along a dark house slowly, 
feeling along the walls. Likewise, if the 
human intellect wishes to make its way into 
eternity, it will find the road enveloped in darkness 
and mist and never to be penetrated in this life. 
The way to eternity is short, but the end intermin- 
able. And although no man has formed such a 
conception of eternity that he can state clearly what 
it is, yet he may represent its immensity by means 
of similitudes and pictures, as it were in certain 
shadowy outlines. For certainly whatever is writ- 
ten or depicted about eternity is a shadow and a 
shadow of shadows. For not all ages heaped to- 
gether will exhaust its breadth; not hours, not days, 
not weeks, not months, not years, not Olympiads, 
not lustrums, not indictions, not jubilees, not cen- 
turies, not the Platonic years and the very slow 
movements of the eighth sphere. Although these 
periods of time should be multiplied by thousands 
and millions or compared to any number what- 
soever, as for example to the stars of heaven, or to 
the sands of the ocean, or to the blades of grass 

121 



122 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

on the earth, or to the drops of water in the rivers, 
yet the measure of eternity will not be discovered. 
Sailors test the depth of the sea by letting down 
a plummet. Let us also by humble and reverent 
reflection sound the impenetrable depth of eter- 
nity; and a picture which has been produced by 
Christians will assist us to ponder on it better. It 
is as follows: 

Christ as a little child almost entirely unclothed, 
as if from the manger and cradle, stands amid the 
clouds and carries a little cross fitted to His shoulder. 
On the clouds is seen inscribed the single word: 
Eternity. On the earth beneath the feet of Christ 
is seated a skeleton, stripped of hair and skin, 
recognizable by its beard alone; in its left hand 
it holds a scroll on which is written: Momentary 
is that which delights. In its right hand it raises 
an apple. Nearby is a raven holding in its beak a 
snail; its motto is: Tomorrow, tomorrow. From 
the yawning earth flames rise on high, on which 
these words are written: Eternal is that which tor- 
tures. Two persons, one of either sex, representing 
the whole human race, adore on bended knees Christ 
as He comes forth from the clouds. Behind them 
is a flowing clepsydra and an open book with two 
pages. On one page is written: "They spend their 
days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to 
hell" (Job XXI, 13); and on the other: "Who shall 
deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom. 



CONSIDERATION VII 123 

VII, 24). Nearby stand heavenly spirits who by a 
gesture direct the eyes of those who look at it and 
bid them gaze upon the Divine Child. Such is the 
picture; its interpretation is as follows: 



CHRIST INVITING 

Christ, the Eternal Son of the Eternal God, came 
into this world with the same vesture as ourselves, 
that is, He came naked. We have lost the vesture 
of immortality and innocence by disobedience. Thus 
clothed, alas how poorly, we all enter this world! 
Christ atones with us, nay rather for us, because 
He did no wrong. But why a cross on the shoulder 
of this Divine little Child? It is the couch on 
which He fell asleep in death, Golgotha as His 
sleeping room, thorns for a pillow, a cross for a 
bed. Many of the saints, led by this example, vol- 
untarily for many years chose to lie uncomfortably 
and to sleep poorly and most sparingly, provided 
only they arose joyful for the eternal day. St. 
Bononius, Abbot, had, instead of a feather mattress, 
the earth; instead of a blanket, hair-cloth; instead 
of a pillow, a stone. St. Lupus, Bishop, for twenty 
years, and St. Edmund, Archbishop, for thirty years, 
slept without any bed. I pass over in silence the 



124 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

Nicholases, the Basils, the Udalrici and very many 
others, who did not think it worth while to induce 
sleep by such comforts for a few short years. They 
had in mind another and a longer rest, and they 
accordingly decided not to enjoy rest outside of 
heaven to the point either of satiety or of delight. 
How many women even were of the same mind! 
St. Clare placed under her head a log of wood 
instead of a pillow. St. Hedwig regarded only a 
straw mattress as a luxury. St. Bridget after the 
death of her husband wore hair-cloth constantly for 
thirty years and slept only on the ground. I 
pass over the austerities of other holy women. 
But why am I telling of the ancients? How many 
religious men even today gladly and cheerfully sleep 
on straw; they do not look for feathers, since they 
hope for a blessed eternity, upon which they daily 
meditate. 

But let us return to Christ. He submitted to 
death, and death the most bitter and ignominious, 
but in order that he might preserve us from eternal 
death. To be sure, we all die, but this death is 
very short. In the twinkling of an eye, in a moment, 
the soul is separated from the body, and all that 
we call death has happened. Not thus is it in hell. 
Those torments far surpass all the anguish and pains 
of death, not only because they are much more 
severe, but because they are of incomparably longer 
duration, since they are eternal. Accordingly, to 



CONSIDERATION VII 125 

suffer them there is to die continually. It was from 
this everlasting death that we have been freed by 
that Child who is pictured as advancing on the 
clouds. Under the feet of this Divine Child sits a 
skeleton, which as can be known from several signs, 
is that of the first parent of all men. Listen now, 
posterity and late descendants of Adam, to your 
parent who addresses you thus: 



II 

ADAM LAMENTING 

"O sons, destined to be happy if your parent had 
known how to make use of his happiness, but now 
wretched for the very reason that I slew you before 
I begot you; on my account you were condemned 
before you were born. I wished to be God, I re- 
mained scarcely man. You all perished in me before 
you could perish; and so I know not whether you 
should call me father or murderer and tyrant. Why 
do I wonder or complain that you are sin-stained? 
From me you learned to be such. I grieve that you 
are disobedient, but yet I taught you to be so by 
being myself disobedient to God. The heavenly 
beings turn away from you because you are intem- 
perate and gluttonous; ah! this is your father's vice. 
Your pride makes you hateful to God: I was the 



12 6 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

first of you who fell, conquered by this monster; 
pride has become more arrogant by her victory over 
me. Such is the inheritance you have received from 
me — a mass of miseries. Heaven, by the will of 
the great God, had been made over and bequeathed 
to you on a most certain pledge. I undid all this, 
and at one throw squandered the inheritance of you 
all. I esteemed my wife and an apple more highly 
than you, than heaven, than God. Alas, wicked and 
accursed meal after which I was obliged to eat in 
hell for several thousand years! 

^^I dwelt in a garden lovely beyond power to con- 
ceive and imagine, and there I was permitted to 
enjoy everything which my soul desired, if I re- 
frained from one tree only. I was king of all 
living things, wise and beautiful, strong and sturdy. 
I abounded with innumerable delights. The sky in 
unchanging calm looked with favor upon me and 
my consort, and, radiant in its deep blue vesture, 
was ever fair: there we saw only the brightest suns. 
All that met our eyes was lovely and blooming; our 
ears listened to the music of the birds; the earth 
exhaled the fragrance of crocus and cinnamon. On 
all sides an incredible delight surrounded me; I 
lived far from all care, weariness, fear, labor, disease 
and death. I was a sort of god on earth; the heav- 
enly beings themselves congratulated me on this 
felicity. I alone begrudged myself this happiness; 
and because I did not obey the divine law and ate 



CONSIDERATION VII 127 

the forbidden fruit, all evils rushed in upon me. 
Expelled from Paradise, banished by God, full of 
shame, I sought a hiding-place. Labor, pain, sorrow, 
fear, tears, calamities, a thousand miseries, began 
to harass me. All you who belong to my race know 
that death, which is believed to be the end of suffer- 
ings, is often the beginning of those that are eternal. 
"O my sons, be wise by my loss and yours, and 
learn this one thing from me — to hate sin. Behold 
the flame bursting forth near me. This flame, which 
began to burn at the same time that sin was first 
committed, will not be extinguished for all eternity. 
All other punishments are to be considered light 
and end in a short time; this one will always torture 
the guilty. But now we can escape it, provided 
only we ourselves wish it. For more than five thous- 
sand years the gate of heaven was closed to me 
and to all my children; now it has been opened by 
Him who, because I of my free will wickedly plucked 
of a tree, was Himself fastened to a tree and thereon 
most freely paid all the debt, and by dying made 
atonement for us all. Heaven is now open to all, 
but only the road of penance leads thither; only the 
gate of the cross admits there. He who comes to 
joys by this road and through this gate comes 
securely, and, certain of an eternal habitation, will 
no longer be excluded therefrom. There no one 
can injure or be injured. O posterity, think on 
eternity, you who are destined in a short time to be 



12 8 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

immortal and among the blessed." Such are the 
admonitions given to his posterity by Adam, who 

To all the race of mankind hath bequeathed 
The penalty by him alone incurred. 

When Thomas More, Chancellor of England, a 
man eminent in many respects, was confined in 
prison, and all means of inducing him to give his 
approval to the king's unlawful passion had failed, 
his wife was sent to him in prison, in the hope that 
she might soften his manly resolve by her supplica- 
tions and tears. She accordingly began to address 
to him the most persuasive entreaties and to beg him 
by everything sacred not thus to bring ruin upon 
himself, his children, his country and his life, which 
he might still enjoy for many years. When she 
strove to heighten the effect of her words by tears 
and added more remarks about a longer life, "And 
how long, my dear Louise," asked More, "shall I 
be able to enjoy this life?" To which she replied: 
"My dear husband, easily for twenty years." "Do 
you wish then," said he, "that I exchange eternity 
for twenty years? Truly you are an inexperienced 
trader; if you had said tv/enty thousand years, you 
might expect to have been heeded, yet even then 
you could reasonably be considered insane; for what 
are these twenty thousand years compared to eter- 
nity? A little while, some short period, a point, a 
moment, nothing. Therefore, I prefer to endure 
for my whole life imprisonment and whatever evils 



CONSIDERATION VII 129 

conspire against me, rather than incur the very 
slightest loss of a blessed eternity.'' By thus plac- 
ing before him eternity he sustained this assault 
without wavering. But let us now consider the raven. 



Ill 

THE RAVEN CROAKING 

Next to this corpse of the first man is painted 
a raven, which to no small extent serves to represent 
eternity again. Well-known is the saying of St. 
Augustine: "Tomorrow, tomorrow is the word of the 
raven; lament as the dove and strike your breast." 
Very many lose a blessed eternity, usually for the 
reason that they decide that eternity must be sought, 
but that they will seek it tomorrow. For there is 
nothing which we more readily postpone to a very 
uncertain tomorrow than repentance. But, that we 
may put it away from us under an appearance of 
virtue, we repeatedly promise: 

Tomorrow, yea, tomorrow 'twill be done. 
But morrow finds the deed not yet begun. 
What, deem you then one day a gift so dear? 
Yet when the sun on morrow doth appear, 
Our yesterday's tomorrow now is past, 
And always a new morrow hastens fast 
To steal away our years; yet none denies 
Beyond our grasp tomorrow always lies. 

Persius, Sat. V, 66-69. 

Thus, that tomorrow delays with a distant promise, 
while the time of life slips by, and suddenly wretched 



130 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

men are thrown into eternity, but a dreadful eter- 
nity below the earth. St. Augustine says: ^^It is 
this eternity which ruins many, while they say To- 
morrow, tomorrow,' and suddenly the door is closed." 
Solomon repeatedly exclaims: '^Delay not to be 
converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to 
day; for His wrath shall come on a sudden, and 
in the time of vengeance He will destroy thee" 
(Ecclus. V, 8-9). Truly has the Roman philos- 
opher Seneca said: "A large part of life is spent in 
doing wrong; the greatest part in doing nothing; 
the whole in acting indifferently." And as Archi- 
medes, during the capture of Syracuse, remained in 
his own home regardless of danger, and revolved 
a pair of compasses in the dust; so most men, while 
their eternal salvation is at stake, handle mere dust; 
that is, their attention is absorbed in vain law- 
suits, money transactions and profitless labors. Of 
eternity they think not at all or very rarely, and 
then only in a perfunctory way, as dogs drink from 
the Nile. O Martha, Martha, how vainly thou art 
troubled and distracted about many things! But 
one thing is necessary — happiness; not however the 
present brief happiness of earth, but the eternal 
happiness of heaven. 

Before undertaking a task we usually apply a 
well-known rule and ask ourselves: Will this labor 
earn bread for me? With much greater reason 
should a Christian at the beginning of any work 



CONSIDERATION VII 131 

whatever seriously put this question to himself: 
Will this earn heaven for me? Does this conduce 
towards meriting a blessed eternity? But we put 
off such interests as these to another and still an- 
other time, intending no doubt to ask ourselves this 
question about our labor when we shall no longer be 
able to labor. "This is a characteristic of all sin- 
ners/' says St. Augustine, "every sinner says, ^some- 
time, but not now.' But why not now, if some- 
time?" 

Dionysius, tyrant of Sicily, when stealing a golden 
cloak from Apollo, said: "This garment is suitable 
neither for summer nor for winter: in summer it is 
too heavy; in winter it has no warmth." "In this 
manner," says St. Ambrose, "many trifle with their 
soul and with God. In their youth they say that 
they must live according to the laws of the world; 
must give themselves up to revelings and dances, to 
horses and athletics; must enjoy the sunny fields and 
their companions, and leave the cloister and the 
churches to stern old men. When chilling and de- 
pressing old age creeps upon them, they say: "These 
things must not be expected of old men; their 
strength does not permit it; they must indulge in 
rest; provided they take care of their health they 
do enough." Thus, both the summer and the winter 
of our life pass, and we labor not at all for the 
future eternal spring. Therefore, while we have 
time, let us perform good works, and because of that 



132 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

word of t±ie raven: "Tomorrow, tomorrow/' let us 
not allow today and tomorrow and eternity to slip 
from our grasp. Tomorrow is not ours, but today 
is. "Behold now," says the Apostle St. James, "you 
that say: Today. or tomorrow we will go into such 
a city, and there we will spend a year, and will 
traffic and make our gain; whereas you know not 
what shall be on the morrow. For what is your 
life? It is a vapor which appeareth for a little 
while, and afterwards shall vanish away" (James 

IV, 13-15). 

Rightly did Messodamus, as Guido of Bourges 
relates, reply to one who invited him to dinner for 
the following day: "My friend, why do you invite 
for tomorrow? For some years now I have never 
dared to promise myself the following day, be- 
cause I look for death from hour to hour." No one 
is certainly ever sufficiently on his guard against 
death but the man who is always on his guard. Too 
rash is that man and clearly does he despise eternity, 
who goes to bed in mortal sin and throwing himself 
upon his soft bed sleeps soundly. Ah, how great is 
the blindness and temerity of the human mind ! We 
know how frequent and common is a sudden death; 
we even know men who the day before went to bed 
well and strong, and in the morning were found dead, 
taken perhaps (God only knows) from a bed of 
feathers to eternal flames. We ourselves have seen 
men, when attacked by a sudden stroke, fall sick and 



CONSIDERATION VII 133 

die at once; within the fraction of an hour they were 
well, sick, living, dead. And yet we still procrasti- 
nate, and put off amendment of life from day to day; 
but this is saying too little — we put it off rather 
from year to year. Meanwhile death, though un- 
expected, approaches and hands us over to a whole 
eternity. 

St. Augustine, valiantly attacking in himself this 
hesitating remissness, says: "I felt myself boimd by 
these evil habits, and I uttered the pitiable words: 
How long, how long? Will it be tomorrow and 
again tomorrow? Why do I not at this hour put 
an end to my wickedness? Saying this I wept in 
the bitterest contrition of my heart." 

The great St. Anthony, according to the testimony 
of St. Jerome, when exhorting his followers to virtue, 
said that by constant practice this admonition must 
be observed: "Let not the sun go down upon your 
anger" (Ephes. IV, 26). And he said that not only 
upon anger should the sun never set, but upon all 
other sins, in order that sun and moon might never 
depart as witnesses of our crimes. 

John, Patriarch of Alexandria, had had a dispute 
with Nicetas Patricius, the chief magistrate of the 
city. The matter was on the point of being brought 
to court, the patriarch undertaking to protect the 
interest of the poor, Nicetas that of his money. It 
was finally agreed that they should meet at a certain 
place to come to terms, if this were in any way 



134 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

possible. For a long time there was a vehement 
discussion, not without traces of irritation and anger. 
Neither thought it right to give up his claim, and 
thus this contest of words lasted to a late hour, 
with no other result than that their feelings were 
somewhat more hostile than before. Since, there- 
fore, neither was disposed to yield to the terms of 
the other, they withdrew, leaving the dispute doubt- 
ful and undecided. Patricius thought it wrong to 
give up his title to the money: the patriarch believed 
that he was upholding the cause of God. Never- 
theless, when they had parted, Patricius, being a 
most upright official, condemned his obstinacy, say* 
ing to himself: "Do not think that even in the best 
cause this inflexible stubbornness in anger is pleas- 
ing to God. Even now night is fast approaching: 
shall we thus allow the sun to go down upon our 
anger? This is the conduct of wicked men, and 
contrary to the precept of the apostle.'' Nor could 
this good bishop rest, and as soon as possible sent 
several of his prominent priests to Nicetas Patricius, 
and ordered this message only to be given to him: 
"Sir, the sim is near its setting.'' These few words, 
producing an unexpected effect, so changed the dis- 
position of Patricius and so overcame all his ob- 
stinacy, that he with difficulty restrained the tears 
that were ready to fall from his moist eyes; nor did 
he delay, but at once following the priests as they 
departed, hastened to his bishop John, eager and 



CONSIDERATION VII 135 

grateful, and at once exclaimed: "Holy Father, 
hereafter I shall be subject to your power." At 
these words they embraced each other and were rec- 
onciled. Thus peace, which a long discussion in 
words could not bring, was restored by this one 
word: "The sun is near its setting." 

Just so, if anyone is conscious to himself of mortal 
sin, let him frequently reflect this within himself 
at evening: "Sir, the sun is hastening to its setting; 
yes, and perhaps your life as well. And if you 
should die this night, a happening neither strange 
nor rare, in what kind of an eternity do you think 
you will be? That of the saints or that of the 
damned?" Your conscience will make you this re- 
ply: "Attend to what you are doing. The sun is 
hastening towards its setting; let it not set upon 
your lust and luxury, upon your envy and blas- 
phemy, upon your detraction and theft, upon even 
one mortal sin." If our clothing or face or hat be 
even slightly soiled, we brush it off or wash it. We 
cannot endure a spot on our clothing or hat or face, 
and shall we endure so long the foulest blemishes on 
our soul? Let that be the day, that the hour of 
expiation, in which the sin is committed. "We must 
do penance," says St. Ambrose, "not only earnestly 
but also quickly, lest perchance that husbandman of 
the Gospel, who planted a fig tree in his vineyard, 
come, and seeking fruit on it, if he does not find it, 
say to the cultivator of the vineyard: ^Cut it 



136 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

down.' " (De Poenit. Bk. II, Ch. i.) This last 
wound inflicted on the tree is absolutely irremediable. 
Wherefore let us who have it in our power apply a 
remedy while there is yet time. The very animals 
teach us this. The deer when pierced with an arrow 
hastens to procure dittany, an herb known to it. 
The swallow, if its young have been blinded, knows 
how to restore their sight by its own herb, swallow- 
wort. We wretched men, alas, are wounded almost 
daily, and often mortally, and yet we take no care 
to procure a remedy. We hasten to table, to social 
intercourse, to bed in the customary way; but who 
hastens to penance, to confession? 

If we listen to the admonitions of our guardian 
angel (for the angels, too, stand represented in this 
symbol of eternity), never would we go to bed 
without being reconciled to God. This guardian of 
ours often reminds us of the clepsydra running to 
its end, of the judgment close at hand; but we pro- 
ceed along the road we have begun: let the clepsydra 
flow, let judgment approach, let hell threaten, let 
our angel warn, let death be close at hand, yet we 
go our way and close our eyes in sweet sleep. O 
wretched man, whoever thou art. 

Canst thou in evil plight calm slumber thus 
enjoy? (Vergil, Aen. IV, 560.) Can you carry to 
bed a conscience guilty of mortal sin? Can you, 
when in so great danger of eternal death, admit 
sleep, the brother of death? "I can/' you say, 



CONSIDERATION VII 137 

"I can, and no evil has ever befallen me." Be not 
over confident: what has not happened in a thou- 
sand hours can happen in a single hour. You have 
not yet escaped; and reflect, I pray, by what distance 
your soul is separated from death, from hell, from 
eternity; certainly only by a single breath. You 
also will say most truly: "By a single step death and 
I are divided." There is need of no great prepara- 
tion in order that death may prostrate you. A 
whole quiver of arrows need not be exhausted in 
order to pierce your heart; the point of one little 
arrow will deprive you entirely of life. Infected 
and foul air blows upon you, or some humor passes 
from your brain to your chest, or some passage 
somewhere in your body is stopped up, or the heat 
of your heart is suddenly stifled, or the pulse of an 
artery ceases to beat: your whole living organism 
collapses, and you will be surprised that you have 
been hurried into eternity before you even feared 
that this would happen. There are a thousand ways 
not only of a slow, but of a sudden death. His is 
the most improvident death whose preceding life was 
not provident. A death that has not been reflected 
upon is the worst death. Therefore, it is salutary ad- 
vice for all, whatever be their age, to believe each 
day their last; nay, to consider each hour their last. 
How many men have died suddenly, by falling, by 
hanging, by poison, by the sword, in flames, 
in the waves, by the claws of a lion, by 



138 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

the teeth of boars, by the kicks of horses — there 
are a thousand causes of death. As many as the 
body has, I will not say senses, but pores, so 
many windows are there through which death may 
creep and kill. "You have been born," says 
St. Augustine, "and it is certain that you shall 
die; but as this fact of death is certain, so the day 
of death is uncertain." No one of us knows how 
near his end is. "I know not," says Job, "how long 
I shall continue, and whether after a while my Maker 
may take me away" (Job XXXII, 22). In the 
midst of life we are in death, which we always carry 
about in our bosom; and who is assured that he will 
live till evening? This robber of men, I mean death, 
has a thousand arts for injuring: innumerable light- 
nings, thunders, Trojan and Grecian fires, arrows, 
swords, burning javelins, scythes, slings. There is 
no need to seek examples from the ancients; we 
have sufficient among the moderns. Have not many 
persons, not unknown to us, during their sleep fallen 
asleep in death itself, not to be awakened before 
the last day? Death does not always send messen- 
gers or ambassadors to make known its approach; 
most frequently it comes when not expected, and 
without any formalities attacks and prostrates its 
inactive victim. Watch, then, because you know 
neither the day nor the hour. There is indeed re- 
pentance in hell, but a repentance that is not sincere, 
a repentance that is too late. Now is the cry timely: 



CONSIDERATION VII 139 

^^Bring forth fruit worthy of penance" (Matt. Ill, 
8). ^The night cometh, when no man can work'' 
(John IX, 4). Work, therefore, while it is day. 
"Day," says Origen, "is the period of this life; this 
day indeed to us seems long, but if it is compared 
with eternity, it is very short. Yet this short period 
of a day is followed by the infinite extent of eter- 
nity." (Hom. 10, In Matt.) 

O my friend, you especially who are conscious of 
grievous sin, contemplate the gate of eternity, and 
think on death. It is most uncertain in what place 
it awaits you; therefore, do you await it in every 
place. As the Lord shall find you when He calls, 
such will He also judge you. 



Consideration VIII 

HOW ETERNITY IS NOT SO MUCH TO 

BE REPRESENTED AS MEDITATED 

UPON BY CHRISTIANS 

ORDER demands that, turning from the 
Royal Psalmist and others who meditated 
on eternity, we descend into ourselves, 
dwell with ourselves, and, at least at times, be alone 
and by ourselves. Too far does he depart from him- 
self and his own salvation who sees the things that 
pass, but forgets those that are eternal. 

Lawyers know that a claim which concerns only 
three obols is not to be brought to court. But if 
there is question of a perpetual and unending inter- 
est, it is agreed that there is great value in only 
three quadrantes, if this amount is to be paid to the 
owner yearly: of such value is the perpetuity of even 
a trifling sum. But if, my friend, you follow up 
a claim of three obols, then how does it happen 
that in gaining possession of the inheritance of an 
eternal kingdom you are so slothful and indolent? 
Do you for the sake of three obols stir up war against 
your neighbor and begin a lengthy lawsuit, and yet 
allow heaven to be borne away by others? Perhaps 

140 



CONSIDERATION VIII 141 

heaven is a paltry thing: in your opinion it certainly 
is, since you labor so little for it. All other things 
you seek with much ambition, effort, and toil. But 
you scarcely have leisure to think of eternal things, 
since they seem so far away; and when you have 
leisure, you have not the inclination. It seems a 
troublesome thing to weary the mind's eye over 
what cannot be clearly seen. Things that are near 
and present delight more. 

Here, if we are wise, we will wonder at our own 
blindness, or more truly our insanity, because, while 
we wish to be certain in all other matters, especially 
in the case of money, yet when there is question of 
eternal treasures, no certitude, or as it is called, 
security, is demanded, although it is possible to have 
some. Who grants a loan of money without de- 
manding in turn a note or a pledge? The following 
words are on the lips of all: "I wish to be certain; 
I desire to have security; I will adopt the safer 
method; I am determined to run no risk." Things 
present and certain everywhere have more weight 
than those that are uncertain and far distant. Bet- 
ter is one sparrow in the hand than ten or twenty 
on the roof. Of more value to us is a blackbird in a 
cage than an eagle in the clouds. Doubtless we 
agree with Plautus: our hands believe when they 
have eyes. 

Is it thus, O mortals, that you seek certitude for 
things which are most uncertain and which deceive 



142 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

most when they are held in the hand, and yet do not 
care to be so certain about eternal life? Christians 
know what security or certitude Christ, the King of 
Heaven, establishes on this point: "If thou wilt enter 
into life, keep the commandments" (Matt. XIX, 
17). He who keeps them enters: the fact is most 
certain, the way most secure. But he who sins 
against even one of these precepts, and then puts 
off repentance and is not reconciled to the God he 
has offended in the same hour in which he has 
sinned, such a man exposes to open danger himself 
and all that belongs to him, the eternal salvation of 
body and soul. He is a few steps (and not even 
this much) removed from death, since he contains 
within himself a thousand causes of death; and yet 
he rashly persists in that state of damnation, by 
dying in which he would perish for all eternity. Is 
not this to act rashly, and to expose eternal riches to 
a most perilous loss, which could easily be avoided? 
But if man were obliged to spend in the torments 
of hell a period of years equal in number to the 
sins he had committed, or even to the hours com- 
prised in his life, how tolerable this would be! 
But, in fact, more would live enemies and foes of 
God, if that fire were to last for a certain number 
of years only. For even as it is, very many are not 
terrified, although they know that those pimish- 
ments will last eternally and through infinite years, 
and that they are so great and terrible that a frac- 



CONSIDERATION VIII 143 

tion of an hour spent in them seems a year. For 
if all the sufferings that a man can endure in this 
life in a hundred years should be, as it were, fused 
into one mass, do you think it would equal one 
year spent in hell? Assassins, robbers, parricides, 
and those guilty of any other crimes whatsoever, in 
three or four years undergo all the punishment due 
to them. They are tortured most dreadfully, to be 
sure, but within a few days all this torture stops, and 
in the course of one week is entirely at an end. 
But the torments of the damned will not be termi- 
nated in one year, nor in one or two centuries. God 
pumishes them always, and never punishes them 
enough, although He punishes for all eternity. 



ETERNITY CUTS OFF NOT ONLY THE ACTUAL POS- 
SESSION OF EARTHLY GOODS, BUT ALSO ALL 
HOPE OF POSSESSING THEM 

Hope in this life is such that often it alone solaces 
a man in his miseries; for nothing is more efficacious 
to soothe the weariness of men. Now divine mercy 
generally causes some hope of salvation to be left 
in adversity. For a sick man while there's life 
there's hope. But after this life this last solace in 
adversity is completely taken away from the 
damned; and when hope is banished, there remains 



144 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

only eternal despair. The Prophet Daniel saw and 
heard an angel crying out: "Cut down the tree, and 
chop off the branches thereof; shake off its leaves, 
and scatter its fruits. Nevertheless leave the stump 
of its roots in the earth" (Dan. IV, 11-12). "He 
shakes off its flowers and leaves,'' says St. Ambrose, 
"but saves its root. Here on earth delights are 
taken away and punishments are inflicted, yet hope 
is not removed; behold, the root is saved, hope re- 
mains. In hell it has been torn up root and branch. 
'It shall not leave them root nor branch,' cries Mala- 
chias (IV, i). Job also lamenting says: 'He hath 
taken away my hope, as from a tree that is plucked 
up' (XIX, 10). 'The hope of the wicked shall 
perish' (Prov. X, 28). Therefore, while we can, 
and, at the same time, as we ought, let us hope.'* 
Ovid once gave this warning: 

Men's fortunes hang on slender thread suspended: 
The strongest things a sudden chance o'erthro\«s. 

(Ex Ponto IV, 3, 35-36) 

Therefore, no trust, no hope, must be placed in 
these things. St. Bernard points out a better way in 
these words: "Faith says: Great and inconceivable 
blessings have been prepared by God for His faith- 
ful. Hope says: They are reserved for me. And 
now the third. Charity, says: I hasten to them." 
(Serm. X, In Ps. 91). True hope, as St. Gregory 
affirms, raises the soul to eternity, and therefore she 
feels no evils which she endures from without. True 



CONSIDERATION VIII 14S 

hope is not ignorant that all things last but for a 
little while and a moment. But O moment, on 
which all eternity depends! The hour of death and 
the day of one's last agony are properly that moment, 
and that pearl of great price for which the prudent 
merchant sells all that he may buy it. But few 
know the value of this pearl. St. Jerome affirms: 
"Regarding eternal salvation almost every man is 
negligent; but whence this neglect in a matter of the 
highest moment?" We poor men have weak and 
bad eyes: we see well enough nearby, but perceive 
scarcely anything at a distance. I am speaking now 
not of adults and the aged: boys and girls just from 
the cradle, who have not yet all their teeth, grasp 
the elements of vice and learn the smallest mean- 
nesses of avarice. Later they are taught the in- 
satiable desire of acquiring wealth, and so they know 
what conduces to gain, what fills their purse and 
lays up a store of provisions. They can talk about 
merchandise, pass judgment on wines, and know how 
to reconmiend foreign styles of dress. As Juvenal 
says: 

Of money aged nurses daily talk 
To boys before they yet have learned to walk. 
This maxim, wealth by any means to get, 
All girls learn sooner than their alphabet. 
And hence the causes of our crimes. 

(Sat. XrV, 208-209, 173). 

Hence also so much ignorance or forgetfulness of 
eternal things: young men and old understand well 



146 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

the value of a coin; they are ignorant of the value 
of heaven and eternity. But let us proceed further. 



II 

ETERNITY IS A SEA, A THREE-HEADED HYDRA, BUT 
ALSO THE FOUNTAIN OF ALL JOY 

To you especially, O Christian, who are often 
present at sermons but perhaps rarely attentive, is 
addressed the following question. Suppose that you 
should stand by the ocean and attempt to empty its 
waters by means of a small shell into a rivulet near 
the shore, which nevertheless itself flows into the 
ocean, so that all the water which you had taken 
from the ocean would thus be again swallowed up in 
it. Tell me, how long will you labor in exhausting 
the ocean? But if you were permitted to empty 
it by means of a large jar, and to pour the water 
into a river which flowed in another direction, even 
in this way how many years would you be obliged 
to spend in transferring the ocean to another bed? 
To live in the midst of flames during this long 
period of time would be an unspeakable torment; yet 
for the damned it would be a most welcome compact: 
they would say that the delay was not long, pro- 
vided only it would at length be so terminated that 
they might escape for eternity. 

The ancients imagined a sort of three-headed 



CONSIDERATION VIII 147 

hydra of such a nature that if one of its heads was 
cut off, another and still another would grow. This 
hydra is truly in hell, if it exists anywhere; for 
there is there a triple eternity, which displays three 
heads, namely, the pain of loss, the pain of sense, 
and the worm of conscience, which will never die. 
Alas, wretched that we are and improvident re- 
garding the most important affairs, we are traveling 
along a road as short as it is dangerous, yet on it 
we are cheerful and wantonly joyous, just as if 
we were walking through paradise and a most de- 
lightful valley, secure from enemies, and on the 
point of being safely established in our native land. 
Yet not without fault can we be ignorant that we 
shall come at length to the two gates of a double 
eternity, one of which belongs to the blessed, the 
other to the damned. Through one of these gates 
we must enter, according to the manner in which 
we have conducted ourselves during the journey. 

St. Lawrence Justinian, wondering at this insane 
rejoicing of the travelers, says: ^^O lamentable con- 
dition of mortals, who, although they are exiles from 
their country, exult on their journey." Let us 
postpone vain joys until we reach our country, and 
let us strive for this one thing, to be admitted 
through that gate which is the beginning of eternal 
beatitude. God created us for delights rather than 
for labors; but here there is neither place nor time 
for delights, but only for labors. God has appointed 



148 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

eternity for delights, but has granted the period of 
this life for meriting those delights. "And by 
what service," you say, "shall I merit them?" Do 
you not know the divine words: "The kingdom 
of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear 
it away?" (Matt. XI, 12.) Reflect thus within 
yourself: Do I possess that violence? Perhaps I 
have it in revelings, in dances, and in pleasures. 
Ah! we must combat generously, we must run 
energetically while we have life and strength, so 
that in the last moment of life, on the very brink of 
eternity, when we shall be separated forever from 
this life and transferred to another which will last 
for all eternity, we may be able to rejoice over our 
past life and to entertain the highest hope for 
that to come. Let us labor, therefore, let us labor, 
and let us do violence to ourselves: thus shall we 
attain everlasting rest, which is hidden in time, and 
eternal glory, which is concealed in the period of a 
few days. 

True and solid joy is not to be sought in these 
present vain and paltry pleasures, but in eternal 
delights. "An ivy came up over the head of Jonas, 
to be a shadow over his head. And Jonas was ex- 
ceeding glad of the ivy" (Jonas IV, 6). And what 
in fine is all the pleasure or vanity of this world? 
Is it not verdant ivy, which creeps up the wall with 
its twining foliage and spreads a luxuriant shade 
above the head? The rich rejoice exceedingly un- 



CONSIDERATION VIII 149 

der the shade of their ivy, that is, their wealth; 
gluttons and inebriates rejoice under the shade of 
their tables; voluptuaries under the shade of their 
pleasures. But grief overtakes the end of their joy. 
"God prepared a worm, and it struck the ivy and 
it withered^' (Jonas IV, 7). Where now, Jonas, is 
your ivy, where your joy? The one and the other 
are withered. Just so our ivies wither, and together 
with them perishes all that shadowy joy. "The 
joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment" (Job 
XX, s); the joy of eternal blessings is eternal. 



Ill 

THE GREAT VALUE OF A RELISH FOR ETERNITY IS 
MADE CLEAR BY AN ILLUSTRIOUS EXAMPLE 

This truth was seen, and seen in time, by Theo- 
dore, the son of Christian parents, a youth in years, 
but in judgment assuredly an old man. On a cer- 
tain holiday observed throughout all Egypt, when 
in his parents' spacious house there resounded laugh- 
ter, mirth and dancing, when festive tables invited 
to banquets, he, grieving because of a wound that 
was secret but salutary, began to expostulate thus 
with himself: "Unhappy Theodore, what gain is it 
to you, if you should gain the whole world? You 
possess many things, but how long will you possess 
them? You are rich, you feast, you dance; but 



ISO CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

how long will all these things last? This manner 
of life would be pleasing and afford a relish, pro- 
vided it could please and afford a relish for a long 
time. But shall I retain these delights and lose those 
that are eternal? Tell me, Theodore, is it part of 
the Christian law, to make for one's self a heaven on 
earth, and to try to pass by way of delights to de- 
lights? Either I greatly deceive myself, or Christ 
said we must go by way of thorns. Put an end 
therefore to this way of living, and to short-lived 
joys prefer the eternal." 

Thus he spoke, and with moist eyes withdrawing 
to a private part of the house and there prostrating 
himself, began to pray as follows: "Eternal God, 
my heart is open to you; my prayer and my 
groaning are turned to you. What I shall ask of 
you, or how, I myself scarcely know. This one 
thing alone, my God, do I entreat, that you per- 
mit me not to die an eternal death. Lord, you 
know that I love you, and desire to be with you 
and to praise you forever. Lord, have mercy!" 

As he was praying thus, his mother entered, 
and being a careful observer at once noticed his eyes 
red and moist with weeping, and said: "Whence 
this grief, my son? And why do you thus seek 
solitude on this festal day? Now the table invites 
you and you alone are missing." To whom Theo- 
dore replied: "I beg you, mother, excuse my ab- 
sence from table, for it is due to a very good 



CONSIDERATION VIII 151 

reason: not even you yourself would advise forcing 
food or drink upon a sick stomach." Thus, by a 
mild deception he dismissed his mother, and entering 
alone with God more deeply into the sanctuary of 
eternity, he began by attentive reflection to examine 
the state of his life, saying to himself: ^^What have 
I been hitherto? Or rather, what do I wish to be 
hereafter, if I desire not to be excluded from the 
kingdom of eternity? There are different ways 
to heaven: one person goes by this way, another 
by that; but what matters it by what way each 
goes, provided he attains his end? Yet, since all 
the ways are not the same, and we, too, are differ- 
ent, each must choose that way which he knows is 
suited to him. One is shorter, another longer and 
more perilous. If I should feel fear on a long and 
perilous way, there remains one that is short and 
safe, in my choice of which without doubt the angels 
will rejoice with me. 

"But will my friends feel sad? Yes, in the be- 
ginning, but afterwards, perhaps, they too will re- 
joice. Come now, Theodore, do not put off this 
matter for long, and do not yield too much. I hope 
indeed that I shall be brave, when I encounter brave 
adversaries. But what if I shall find them gentle, 
coaxing, tearful? Here I fear more for myself. 
But fortify your soul, and though it is now by nature 
yielding, pray to Christ to make it resolute. But 
what if your mother should make an urgent appeal 



IS2 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

to you? You know what St. Jerome says: Tly to 
the standard of the cross; it is a virtue to be cruel 
in this matter.' You have another and greater 
mother, who likewise appeals to you, and she is that 
patron of yours, the Most Blessed Virgin, who here- 
after will be to you as a thousand mothers, if you 
will be her son. 

"But it is a difficult thing, this change of life, 
especially in the very bloom of youth. It is diffi- 
cult, I admit. But experience says: Many serve 
God poorly for the very reason that they serve 
Him late. More wisely than all others do they act 
who have learned to carry the yoke of the Lord 
from youth. But hitherto I have been delicately 
reared; now I shall enter upon an austere manner 
of life; shall I be able to endure it? I hope so; but 
how long will it last? for one or two years? This 
will not be enough; I must strive further, even to 
the end of my life. Weigh this choice well then, and 
either do not begin, or persevere to the end. I 
think that I shall not be alone in overcoming these 
difficulties, but I shall have God as my companion. 
This is true, to be sure; but it is very difficult to 
go counter to one's former customs. Hitherto I 
have lived the free life of a noble; now I shall lead 
a lowly life of service. And how long shall I lead 
it? Here I am not to think of a short comedy, as 
it were, in which I shall play this role for one or two 
days. No; the last act will be ended only when 



CONSIDERATION VIII 153 

life is ended. The discomfort of this theater will 
last long, and you will be permitted to return to your 
silk and purple only when you are clothed in immor- 
tality and the vesture of glory. 

"O Theodore, what will you do in this play which 
is to be of such long duration? I shall turn my 
attention to the other actors, among whom I see 
Christ, the Son of God, ignoble, lowly and simple, 
who suffers and performs the humblest services. 
What must I do, who am surely not better than He? 
But it is indeed hard to reduce one's self to these 
straits, and to enter, as it were, a sort of prison. 
Consider that for the future your will is to depend 
on that of another, and you do what another wills. 
Here also I have Christ to follow, who came not to 
do His own will but that of His Father who is in 
heaven. It will not be difficult for me to follow the 
guidance of another, if I see Him leading the way. 
Who is it that commands? A man utters the word, 
but the order comes from God, to whom I would owe 
obedience even if I did not promise it. But cer- 
tainly this is too high a philosophy, to pass from a 
life of wealth to one of poverty; what will you do? 
You who were able to give to beggars must yourself 
beg; do not seek for delights which you will not 
have. 

"Why do I debate so long with myself? Why do 
I fluctuate in this channel between hope and fear? 
Do I not see before me the example of the Lord? 



154 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

Have I not before my eyes Christ nailed to the 
cross, mocked and suffering unspeakable torments? 
Leaving heavenly treasures He came down to this 
poor earth. And when here, what did He have? 
His birth and death show: in the one He had not a 
place to lodge; in the other He had not wherewith 
to clothe Himself — He died naked. What was His 
condition throughout His life? He submitted to 
flight, travel, thirst, heat; how unwearied He was in 
acting, how patient in suffering! What He taught, 
that also He practiced. Who was ever so devoted 
to poverty, so ready for labors, so mild under insults? 
Shall I be ashamed of such a leader? Shall I blush 
to be ranked among His followers? Otherwise I 
shall not be such a Theodore as my Lord Jesus 
wishes me to be. I am ready for love of Him to 
suffer cold, hunger and thirst. I am ready to be 
despised, imprisoned, burned, cut. These things are 
brief and cannot be of long duration; the joys or 
torments of eternity alone are truly of long duration. 
Depart, all ye things that perish; I esteem you not 
worth a straw; eternity alone is the object of my 
desire." 

He became so heated by this fervor of his 
thoughts, that he burned with desire for heavenly 
eternity alone. He therefore decided to bid a long 
and eternal farewell to money, parents and pleasures. 
For the purpose of strengthening this resolve, he 
acted not so hastily as steadfastly. He did not at 



CONSIDERATION VIII 155 

once become what he desired to be, that is, a dis- 
ciple of Pachomius, but became so finally. More 
than one tragedy followed this prologue, but con- 
trary to the custom of tragedies, after a sad begin- 
ning it had a joyful ending. Thus, Theodore had 
absorbed the thought of eternity into his inmost 
being, so that he did not refuse to become the talk 
of the world, provided only he did not believe with 
the world that eternity is a myth. 

Do you wish, O Christians, to listen to a true and 
solemn warning from Theodore, nay from the great 
St. Paul, nay from Christ Himself? Very many 
live as if all eternity were a myth. "Wide is the 
gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruc- 
tion, and many there are who go in thereat" 
(Matt. VII, 13). They certainly would not go in 
thereat, if they believed that they would abide eter- 
nally there where they had entered. Thus for you 
eternity is but a pious myth. But, you will say, 
we believe in eternity, we hope for it, we desire it. 
Pray tell me, how small is this hope or faith, how 
cold this desire? A present pleasure, money in 
one^s hand, the allurements of the flesh so cleverly 
deceive many, as gradually to extinguish in them 
by a sweet forgetfulness all love of eternity. A 
thousand times these words are uttered: "Thus saith 
the Lord; thus doth God command." This is heard 
a thousand times, but is also a thousand times 
disregarded. Let the Lord speak, let God command, 



iS6 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

but this way is pleasing to us, "for we 
will go after our own thoughts, and we will act 
everyone according to the perverseness of his evil 
heart. Therefore, thus saith the Lord: ^^Ask 
among the nations: Who hath heard such hor- 
rible things?" (Jerem. XVIII, 12-13). If those 
nations who are without God had known these mys- 
teries of eternity, would they have scorned them 
thus? It is well, O mortals; I cried out and you 
did not listen; ''I called and you refused; I stretched 
out my hand and you did not regard. I also will 
laugh in your destruction, when sudden calamity 
shall fall on you, and destruction as a tempest 
shall be at hand" (Prov. I, 24-27); when all eter- 
nity shall oppress you. If death should smite you 
in this state, the sentence is already passed, the 
gate already closed. Depart, eternally wretched, 
eternally damned. 

Watch then, O Christians, watch! The judge 
stands at the gate; in a moment will happen that 
over which all eternity will mourn. The great St. 
Antony in a certain sermon to his disciples said: 
^^Here, my brothers, in buying and selling wares, 
the prices of things are equal to their value. You 
give me ten aurei, and I give you spices of equal 
value. I count out for you fifty florins; you pay me 
back an equivalent amount of grain. Far different 
is the calculation in purchasing those things that 
are eternal. Eternal life costs a very paltry sum. 



CONSIDERATION VIII 157 

A single obol can more justly be compared with a 
million golden coins than all our labor with heavenly 
beatitude. In the Psalms I read that the days of 
our life are seventy years, or at most eighty, ^and 
what is more of them is labor and sorrow' (Ps. 
LXXXIX, 10). Wherefore, if we serve God faith- 
fully and fervently for eighty or a hundred years 
at most, we shall obtain a kingdom of endless ages, 
and shall reign not merely for a hundred years: we 
shall inherit heaven, not earth. Therefore, my sons, 
let not fatigue weary you, nor ambition for empty 
glory delight you; ^for the sufferings of this time 
are not worthy to be compared with the glory to 
come that shall be revealed in us' (Rom. VIII, 18). 
Let no one think that in abandoning the world he 
has left great things; for all the expanses of earth 
compared to the infinity of the heavens are small and 
narrow; and although we should retain our wealth, 
yet by the law of death we will be torn from it 
against our will. Why then do we not make a virtue 
of necessity, that is, give up voluntarily what must 
soon be given up; for these things are trifling, and 
we are to receive the greatest things." This is told 
in detail by Athanasius (St. Antonii Vita, Ch. 15). 
It was the constant practice of St. Pachomius, 
whenever an unlawful thought assailed his mind, to 
drive it away by recalling eternity. If it returned, 
he opposed to it the consideration of eternal punish- 
ments: pains burning without end, the inextinguish- 



iS8 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

able fire and the worm that never dies. Wherefore, 
let St. Pachomius himself close this consideration in 
his own words: "Before all things/' he says, "let 
us have before our eyes the last day, and at every 
moment let us fear the punishment of eternal pains." 



Consideration IX 

SOME CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM 

WHAT HAS BEEN SAID ON 

ETERNITY 

FIRST CONCLUSION 

NOT only is no man able to speak ade- 
quately of the infinite length of eternity, 
but he cannot even reach it in thought. 
There is the greatest difference between a liv- 
ing man and the statue of a man, between real 
fire and painted fire; and yet even these in their 
own way are said to be very similar. But be- 
tween our fire and the fire of hell, between our 
pains and those of hell, there is no comparison, 
absolutely none; for the measure of the one is 
time, of the other eternity. Christ expresses 
this beautifully in the simile of the branch, 
when He says: "If anyone abide not in me, he shall 
be cast forth as a branch and shall wither, and 
they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire 
and he burneth" (John XV, 6). Here eternity is 
excellently described in a brief statement, or rather 
in a single word. For all the other words of Christ 
are used in the future tense: he shall wither, they 
shall gather, they shall cast; but not: he shall burn, 
but he burneth. This shall be the condition of a 

159 



i6o CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

man who is lost. A thousand years shall go by, 
and he burneth; another thousand shall pass, and 
he burneth as in the beginning; another and an- 
other thousand years shall glide by, and he burneth 
just as when he began. But if after several millions 
years it should be asked: What is that man doing 
who was condemned so many thousand years ago? 
What is happening to him? No other answer can 
be given than this: He burneth with continual, un- 
speakable, eternal burnings; and it will be so from 
age to age. St. Augustine, commenting on this pass- 
age, explains it beautifully when he says: "One of 
two things is suited to the branch, either the vine 
or the fire: if it is not on the vine, it will be in the 
fire; therefore, that it may not be in the fire, let it 
be on the vine" (Tract. 8i In loannem). 

SECOND CONCLUSION 

If those who are in mortal sin knew how near 
they are to eternity and eternal torments, since 
they could at the nod of God (for so we speak) be 
handed over to death and by death to the devil, they 
would be unwilling to receive as a gift the whole 
kingdom of Spain, all the treasures of Asia, nay, the 
whole world, on condition that they defer confession 
and penance for even one hour, much less that they 
would go to bed with such a sin on their souls. 
"For what doth it profit a man if he gain the whole 



CONSIDERATION IX i6i 

world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?" (Matt. 
XVI, 26). If you should lose everything, O man, 
remember to save your soul. Arialdus, a deacon of 
Milan, lost almost all his members. He was of 
very noble family, for he was the brother of a 
marquis, and was also most holy in his life; but 
because he resisted heretics and other wicked men 
with the greatest firmness, he was at length led to 
death. His ears were cut off, his lips mutilated, 
his nose cut off, his tongue torn from his throat, his 
eyes dug out, his right hand amputated. I pass over 
other indignities. This saint saved his soul in a 
body most cruelly destroyed, and that he might 
gain life lost his life, in the year one thousand 
sixty-six after our Lord's birth of the Virgin. 

Such a noble athlete as this, ^^mindful of his eter- 
nity," as says Seneca, "goes forth to everything 
which has been and will be in all ages"(Consol. ad 
Helviam 20). Well has St. Augustine said: "What 
therefore shall we fathers do, unless change our 
life while there is time, and correct our deeds if 
there are any needing correction? So that the 
punishment that without doubt will come upon 
sinners may not find us among those upon whom 
it is to come: not because we shall cease to exist, 
but that it may not find us such as those to whom 
its coming has been predicted. All that we have 
heard through the Scriptures is the voice of God 
saying: Observe; and all that we suffer, the tribu- 



i62 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

lations of this life, is the scourge of God who wishes 
to correct that He may not condemn in the end. 
These things are in a way hard and troublesome, 
and cause a shudder when they are told about; 
but the most grievous things that each man suffers 
in this life are in comparison with eternal fire not 
small, but nothing." (Serm. 109 De Temp.) 



THIRD CONCLUSION 

A great number of Christians, even of Catholics, 
do not believe that there is an eternity in hell and in 
heaven; that is to say, they would certainly live 
otherwise if they truly did believe it. To them 
applies this saying: "The Son of man, when He 
cometh, shall He find, think you, faith on earth?" 
(Luke XVIII, 8). There are some who wish to 
appear to believe this: in words they assent to it, 
but in their deeds they deny it. They either never 
or very rarely think of eternity, and they merely 
think of it, but do not reflect, do not dwell upon it, 
do not examine it, do not arouse their intellect and 
will, nor impress it on their imagination. They 
scarcely begin, and soon wander elsewhere; and if 
perchance any good spark is produced from this 
thought, they at once drown it in cares, business, 
or pleasures, as in water. Thus many with eyes 
closed and ears stopped up enter upon the way of 
eternity which leads to death; as the Holy Fathers 



CONSIDERATION IX 163 

observe in regard to the rich glutton mentioned in 
the Gospel, that he lifted up his eyes only when he 
was in torments. All his life he had kept them 
closed, especially to the poor and to all piety; he 
opened them first in hell, but when it was too late. 
And there is no reason why we should wonder that 
many hasten so blindly with might and main to the 
home of eternal grief: the road is very spacious; 
it is delightful, broad, and smooth. On this road 
no one goes astray but at the end; it would be 
pleasing to more, if its end did not displease and 
cause terror. Therefore, many prudently prefer a 
road that is rough for a little while, yet which leads 
to an abode that is forever happy, rather than one 
that attracts by a brief charm, but which leads to 
a prison designed for everlasting tears and torments. 
With truth does Job say: "As a cloud is consumed 
and passeth away, so he that shall go down to hell 
shall not come up; nor shall he return any more into 
his house, neither shall his place know him any 
more'' (Job VII, 9-10). 

FOURTH CONCLUSION 

It will be found that whoever frequently and 
seriously turns to the thought of eternity not only 
does not live in a dissolute and licentious manner, 
but does not even frequently indulge in immoderate 
mirth and laughter. Those of the dead who have 



1 64 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

beheld the condition of the future life and being 
raised from the dead have returned to us, were not 
seen to laugh readily. This was remarked particu- 
larly in Lazarus, that friend of Christ's from 
Bethany. All these could agree with Ecclesiastes 
when he declares of himself: ^^Laughter I counted 
error; and to mirth I said: Why art thou vainly 
deceived?" (Eccles. II, 2). Cyril of Alexandria 
rightly confesses himself timid in this matter, say- 
ing: "I fear hell, since it is interminable; I dread 
the destructive worm, since it is everlasting." "O 
that they would be wise and would understand, and 
would provide for their last end" (Deut. XXXII, 
29). If this thought of eternity does not cause a 
man to turn to better things (I will speak briefly but 
truly), either he has not faith, or if he has faith he 
has not a heart and feeling. 

A learned man once declared, not without some 
truth, that a wedding is a brief and joyous song, but 
it has a long mournful refrain. So shall we say 
with all truth that all the pleasure of sin is a short 
and lively song, but it has a very long and most 
dismal refrain: eternal torment. O eternity, eter- 
nity, eternity! 



FIFTH CONCLUSION 

When eternity is spoken of, no one can say too 
much or exaggerate the reality. Whatever may be 



CONSIDERATION IX 165 

said, there is here no exaggeration, no numbers are 
too extensive; but too little is always said, because 
it is on a subject that is infinite and eternal. For 
eternity has this quality, that it remains entire how- 
ever much is taken from it. Let as many years be 
subtracted as there are stars in the heavens, drops 
of water in the sea, grains of sand on the shore, 
leaves on the trees, blades of grass on the earth: 
it is still entire. Let as many years be added: it will 
not be greater. As long as God shall exist, so long 
will He punish the damned. By several shadowy 
similitudes we have shown this above; let us 
add now another from St. Bonaventure (De Infer. 
49). If any one of the damned should so weep that 
he would shed only a single tear every hundred 
years; and if these tears should be preserved for 
so many centuries that at length they would be 
equal in volume to an ocean; alas, how many million 
years must pass by before even a little brook would 
be formed, not to speak of an ocean! And yet at 
that time it can truly be said: "Eternity is just 
beginning.'' But suppose that this is done a second 
time, and another river or sea is collected from these 
drops shed at such long intervals; again, when all 
that time has passed, we must say: "Eternity is now 
beginning"; and so on to infinity. There is here 
no possibility of doubt, for there is no proportion 
between the finite and the infinite. The reason that 
this truth seems to us so wonderful and incredible 



i66 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

is because our imagination is unable to grasp it, to 
comprehend things so remote, to penetrate to what 
is infinite and impenetrable. And this also is partly 
the reason that our intellect is with such difficulty 
brought to think on eternity, because in a certain 
sense it is ashamed or scorns to weary itself over 
that which it cannot penetrate. But we must not 
yield to this false shame; the intellect must be im- 
pelled and forced to undertake daily this most salu- 
tary meditation and to exercise itself at least with 
such similitudes as the above. Never will it make 
a mistake, never will it think of too many years, 
never of so many million years that there are not 
infinitely more and more. This fact is certain and 
beyond dispute. 

The Prophet Daniel, that he might better explain 
the incomprehensible extent of eternity, speaks thus: 
^^But they that are learned shall shine as the bright- 
ness of the fimament; and they that instruct many 
to justice, as stars for all eternities" (Dan. XII, 3). 
He uttered this as if he meant to say: Words are 
lacking to explain eternity; I cannot say more, 
although more should be said. Yet the prophet 
adds to the words a double increase by using the 
expression "all eternities"; and indeed, if one eter-' 
nity is interminable, what will be two, ten, a hun- 
dred, a thousand, nay all eternities? But if we 
compare to eternity a year or great years multiplied 
a thousand times, what part of it shall we explain? 



CONSIDERATION IX 167 

They say that the eighth heavenly body moves with 
excessive slowness, and although it daily revolves 
by the impulse of initial motion, yet by its own 
motion it makes a complete revolution in its orbit 
only every thirty-six thousand years; and this long 
period of time is called the great year, the turning 
year, or the Platonic year. Let us compare this 
whole period with eternity, and in comparison it will 
be only a moment, an instant, a tick of the clock. 
Truly has Boethius said: ^^An instant or second of 
time and ten thousand years are more similar than 
are ten thousand years and eternity." St. John 
says: ^Xittle children, it is the last hour" (John, 
I Epist. II, 18) ; and yet he said this one thousand 
six hundred years ago. Therefore, most truly did 
St. Augustine say: ^^Every thing which has an end 
is short." (In Ps. 145.) Eternity as a word con- 
sists of four syllables: in its essence it is without 
end. Love eternity. Without end you will reign 
with Christ, if you have Christ as your end. 

SIXTH CONCLUSION 

It is incredible that a man, especially one blessed 
with a knowledge of the ancient religion, is to be 
found possessed of a spirit so unrestrained and so 
undisciplined, that he does not give to this medita- 
tion on eternity at least a portion of an hour once 
a day; provided, that is, that he does not live as a 



1 68 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

beast and deliberately ruin himself; for "the wicked 
man when he is come into the depth of sins con- 
temneth" (Prov. XVIII, 3). Nay, if he should think 
seriously on eternity even once each week, it is 
incredible that he would not change his present mode 
of life for one far better and become another man 
— himible and modest from being proud, mild and 
gentle from being passionate, chaste and continent 
from being impure, temperate and sober from be- 
ing inebriate. Such a man as this will become truly 
religious, in spirit at least, if not in garb. 

But not hastily, not casually, not in a perfunctory 
manner must this subject be considered; it must be 
carefully weighed and balanced; we must impress 
the thought upon our minds and repeatedly reflect 
on eternity, eternity, eternity, which will never have 
an end; no, never, never; which will continue 
through innumerable, incomprehensible, infinite ages, 
and will never cease to continue. This, I say, must 
be attentively considered, and digested like food. 
Although food be the best obtainable and healthful, 
if it is not crushed with the teeth and digested, it 
is poison and not nourishment; it generates diseases 
of all kinds; it remains in the body for some time, 
but produces no good substance. Just so is it with 
salutary and holy thoughts on death, on judgment, 
on heaven, on hell; yet far more salutary is the 
thought of eternity, which can justly be called the 
quintessence. But this best of food, so to speak, 



CONSIDERATION IX 169 

must be not only taken into the mind, but digested. 
Let a man ponder on such truths as these when he is 
in soUtude, free from cares and attentive in mind. 
Unless this is done, the reading and hearing of facts 
will usually be without fruit and thrown to the 
winds. Many hear many sermons; they also read 
certain works themselves; but they derive scarcely 
any profit therefrom, because they do not reflect on 
what they have read and heard; all these truths are 
lightly passed over, and before they can be reduced 
to practice are completely forgotten. What has 
been heard and read should be dwelt upon for some 
time, and the will should be trained. This we learn 
from the Blessed Virgin, Mother of God: "But Mary 
kept all these words, pondering them in her heart" 
(Luke II, 19). 



SEVENTH CONCLUSION 

No one believes, or at least no one understands 
and reflects upon these very clear words of Christ: 
"Enter ye in at the narrow gate; for wide is the 
gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruc- 
tion, and many there are who go in thereat. How 
narrow is the gate, and strait the way that leadeth 
to life, and few there are that find it" (Matt. 
VII, 13-14)' And He repeats this by the mouth of 
St. Luke: "Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for 
many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall 



170 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

not be able" (Luke XIII, 24). "Whoever/' says 
St. Augustine, "ridicules this belief, so as to think 
that he is not obliged to believe because he does 
not see, when that which he did not believe comes 
to pass, such a one is ashamed, and being put to 
confusion is set apart, and being set apart is con- 
demned" (Serm. 64 De Verbis Domini). 

Jerome Platus relates (De Bono Stat. Relig. Bk. 
I, Ch. 5) that not long after the establishment of a 
new community by St. Francis, an illustrious man 
of this community, named Berthold, preached from 
the pulpit with such vigor and candor of speech 
against a certain vice, that a woman who was guilty 
of this crime fell dead. Whereupon all the congre- 
gation having recourse to prayer, she was restored 
to life; and when asked why she had been bidden 
to return to life and what she had seen in the other 
world, she told the following story: "When I stood 
at the tribunal of God, there stood with me sixty 
thousand souls, which were summoned before their 
judge from all parts of the world by a different kind 
of death. From this entire number only three were 
assigned to the expiatory flames; upon all the others 
the sentence of eternal punishment was passed." 

Alas! I would not believe the narrative of this 
woman, unless I had first believed Christ, who so 
solemnly declares: "Broad is the way that leadeth 
to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. 
Strait is the way that leadeth to life, and few there 



CONSIDERATION IX 171 

are that find iV (Matt. VII, 13-14)- But who would 
believe that eternal punishment has been decreed 
by God not only upon sixty thousand but upon so 
many other thousands upon thousands of men, unless 
he were convinced of this by the supreme and infi- 
nite majesty of God and by the inexplicable malice 
of sin against this majesty and by the very clear 
testimonies of Sacred Scripture? Job says in 
alarm: ^ Where no order but everlasting horror 
dwelleth'' (Job X, 2 2 ) . St. Matthew declares : '^De- 
part from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire" 
(XXV, 41). The Church exclaims in the Office of 
the Dead (Noct. 3) : "The fear of death troubles me, 
sinning daily and not repenting, because in hell there 
is no redemption." None, none, neither is there any 
consolation, nor is anyone permitted to carry thither 
even a drop of water on the tip of his finger to re- 
fresh the damned. 

But if those even who live in the grace of God, 
men of good intention and will, sufficiently under- 
stood from how great torments they will be freed 
on the day of judgment by the sentence of the judge, 
and how great joys of unending duration will be 
bestowed upon them, they would not defer even for 
an hour, leaving vanities to the vain, the dead to the 
dead, the world to its lovers, and then would them- 
selves embrace that sanctity of life in which they 
could please God most and love and praise Him 
most throughout their life, in order to merit that 



172 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

twofold eternal blessing which is to be conferred 
upon them — the freeing them from hell and grant- 
ing them paradise. St. Gregory says: ^'The soul 
feels the evils of the present life so much the more 
severely in proportion as it neglects to reflect on the 
good which follows; and because it does not wish 
to meditate on the rewards which await it, it judges 
those things which it endures to be burdensome. 
But if each man would once for all raise himself to 
things eternal and fix the eye of his heart upon those 
which remain unchangeable, he would perceive that 
whatever hastens to an end is almost nothing." 
(Moral. Bk. X, Ch. lo.) And again: "Joy in tribu- 
lation is a song in the night, because, even if we are 
afflicted by temporal misfortunes, yet we rejoice 
in the hope of eternity." (Moral. Bk. XXVI, 
Ch. 102.) 

St. Augustine reasons eloquently in almost the 
same strain: "When you consider the reward that 
you are going to receive," he says, "everything 
which you suffer will seem trifling to you, and you 
will not esteem these sufferings worthy of that future 
reward. For, my brothers, surely for eternal rest 
eternal labor should be endured; if you are going to 
receive eternal happiness, you ought to undergo eter- 
nal sufferings. But if you were to undergo elernal 
labor, when would you come to eternal happiness? 
Hence tribulations must necessarily be confined to 
time, so that when they have ceased you may come 



CONSIDERATION IX » 173 

to infinite happiness." And again: "Weigh a thou- 
sand years against eternity. Yet why do you weigh 
anything finite, however great, with infinity? Ten 
thousand years, ten times a hundred thousand years, 
if we can so speak, and thousands upon thousands 
which have an end, cannot be compared with eter- 
nity. Add to this God has willed that your labor 
be not only temporal, but also brief, since the whole 
life of man consists merely of a few short days. 
Therefore, though a man should be worn out by 
various labors, sufferings, and pains during the entire 
period of his life; though he should endure imprison- 
ment and blows, hi^nger and thirst continually up 
to his last day, it should be said that he has endured 
trouble for a short time. The whole life of man is 
a few days; and that labor is light and short, upon 
the completion of which will succeed an eternal 
kingdom and endless happiness. There will come 
equality with the angels; there v/ill come inheritance 
with Christ and Christ Himself as co-heir. How 
much labor do we undergo to receive so great a 
reward?" (In Ps. 36.) 

The same St. Augustine says elsewhere: "Ex- 
ceedingly deep are the thoughts of God. Where is 
the thought of God? For the present He holds 
the reins loose, but later He will tighten them. Do 
not rejoice like the fish which delights in its bait; 
the fisherman has not yet drawn out the hook, the 
fish still has it in its throat. So, what seems to 



174 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

you long is short; all things quickly pass. What is 
a long life of man compared to the eternity of God? 
Do you wish to possess patience? Look at the 
eternity of God. Do you look to your few days, 
and wish all things to be completed in this brief 
space? That all the wicked be damned, that all 
the good be crowned — do you wish all this to be 
completed in your short days? God completes all 
in His own time; He is eternal, He acts slowly, He 
is patient. But you say: I am not patient because 
I exist in time. But you have it in your power to 
be so; unite your heart to the eternity of God and 
you will be eternal with Him. If you are a Chris- 
tian and well instructed you will say: God reserves 
everything for His own judgment. The good labor 
because they are scourged Hke sons; the wicked 
rejoice because they are condemned like strangers. 
A man has two sons; one he chastises, the other he 
lets go free; one acts wrongly and is not reproved 
by his father; the other, whenever he moves, is 
buffeted with blows and scourged. Why is the one 
allowed to go free, and the other beaten, unless 
because an inheritance is reserved for the one who 
is beaten, but the one who is left free is disinherited. 
The father sees that the latter affords no hope, and 
consequently allows him to act as he pleases. But 
the child who is scourged, if he should not have 
sense and should be short-sighted and foolish, envies 
his brother who is not beaten and compassionates 



CONSIDERATION IX 175 

himself, saying in his heart: My brother commits 
so many evil deeds; he does whatever he pleases 
against my father's commands, and no one utters a 
harsh word to him; but as soon as I move I am 
beaten. He is foolish and short-sighted; he looks 
to what he suffers, and does not look to what is 
reserved for him/' (In Ps. 91). 

To the above words we may rightly add the 
following from the same holy and learned bishop, 
as an epitome of what has been said heretofore: 
^^How great is the mercy of God! He does not say: 
Labor ten times a hundred thousand years. He 
does not say: Labor even a thousand years. He 
does not say: Labor five hundred years; but merely: 
Labor while you live; in a few years you shall have 
rest, and rest that shall have no end. And you labor 
a few years, and in these very labors consolation is 
not lacking, daily joys are not lacking. But do not 
rejoice in the world; rejoice in Christ, rejoice in 
His word, rejoice in His law. The sa)dng of the 
Apostle is true: ^^For that which is at present mo- 
mentary and light of our tribulation worketh for 
us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of 
glory'' (2 Cor. IV, 17). Behold how small a price 
we give, a single straw as it were, to receive ever- 
lasting treasures; the straw of labor for incredible 
rest. Do you rejoice for a time? Place not your 
trust there. Are you sad for a time? Do not de- 
spair; let not happiness mislead you nor adversity 



176 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

cast you down. God promises eternal life: despise 
temporal happiness. He threatens eternal fire: de- 
spise temporal pains." (In Ps. 95.) 

Let us conclude these remarks in the words of the 
same holy writer. ^'Therefore, let us love eternal 
life, and learn how much we ought to labor for eter- 
nal life, when we see that men who love the present 
life which is momentary and soon ended, so labor for 
it that, when fear of death comes upon them, they 
use every effort, not that they may remove this fear, 
but that they may put off death. How much a man 
labors, when death threatens, in avoiding and seek- 
ing to escape it, in giving whatever he has in order 
to free himself from it, in laboring and enduring 
sufferings and annoyances, employing physicians and 
doing whatever else lies in his power. See how he 
can act, expending thus his bodily and mental 
powers in order to live for a short period; and yet 
he cannot do as much in order to live forever. If 
then men strive with such labor, such effort, such 
expense, such perseverance, such watchfulness, such 
care, that they may live a little longer, how should 
they strive that they may live always? And if they 
are called prudent who do all in their power to put 
off death and live a few days that they may not 
lose a few days, how foolish are they who so live 
that they lose the eternal day." (Serm. 64 De 
Verb. Dom.) 

Reflect on these truths, O mortals, and before you 



CONSIDERATION IX 177 

are eternal either in joys or in torments, look forward 
to eternity. All things pass away; eternity alone 
remains, and will not pass away. 



THE PUNISHMENT OF ETERNAL DEATH 

The Messinians had a subterranean prison, de- 
prived of light and air and full of infernal horror; 
but that they might conceal this deadly place under 
a fair name, it was called the Treasure-house. This 
prison had no doors, but the condemned man was 
lowered by a rope, and the opening was then closed 
by a huge rock. In this ^Treasure-house" was con- 
fined Philopoemen, that famous general of Greece, 
and there he ended his life by poison. God, too, 
has a "Treasure-house" under the earth; but, alas, 
what kind of one? One containing criminals, the 
damned and men deprived of all hope. 

Actiolinus, once tyrant of the Paduans (as Jovius 
relates), had many prisons, so infamous because of 
every kind of misery and torture that in them death 
was considered a delight, but did not readily come 
until frequently invited. As many as were thrust 
into these prisons were laden with heavy iron and 
suffered a lingering and piteous death by stench, 
hunger and filth: they truly felt that they were 
dying. Here everyone was considered most wretched 



178 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

except the one who had the good fortune to die; 
it was a punishment more terrible than death to be 
thus forced to dwell alive among the dead. Putre- 
fying corpses were heaped up in piles, causing such 
torture to the sense of smell that it could truly be 
said: "Here the dead kill the living." 

But the most foul of these prisons, compared with 
the dungeons of hell, is a paradise and delightful 
palace. Whatever sufferings one endures in the 
prisons of Actiolinus are all tolerable because they 
are brief, because they give promise of an end, be- 
cause they cease with life, because they all vanish in 
death. But that Treasure-house of the damned, 
which is the prison of God, has no comfort from the 
shortness of its torments; it excludes death, it per- 
mits no egress, it knows no end, alas, none at all. 
Most truly does Cassiodorus say: "As no mortal 
understands what an eternal reward is; so none 
comprehends what that torment is which is to last 
without end." 

Among the Persians there was a prison such that 
entrance into it was easy, but departure very diffi- 
cult, or rather no departure at all was granted; and 
on this account it was called Lethe. The descent 
into hell is easy, but for those who have once en- 
tered no way out is found; no one ever retraces his 
steps. This prison of God is by a true title called 
Lethe or Forgetfulness; for God so forgets the 
damned that He will not remember them with 



CONSIDERATION IX 179 

favor for all eternity. Hell is truly a land of for- 
getfulness, and this for two reasons, as a pious and 
learned author observes (F. Titelmann, In Ps. 87). 
"Because," he says, "those who are there no longer 
remember God for their good, and their only re- 
membrance of former things is one which causes 
them suffering; for there is either a forgetfulness of 
all pomps, pleasures and delights, or the remem- 
brance of them is not without torture. Also, this 
fiery region of the damned has been consigned to 
oblivion by God and the angels, because those who 
abide there are destined never to be released." 
"Between us and you," exclaims Abraham, "there 
is fixed a great chaos; so that they who would pass 
from hence to you cannot, nor from thence come 
hither" (Luke XVI, 26). O frightful chaos! O 
dread eternity of torments! "And their sepulchres 
shall be their houses forever" (Ps. XLVIII, 12). 
Such palaces do the impious erect for themselves. 
"And the rich man also died, and he was buried in 
hell" (Luke XVI, 22). O deep sepulchre ! In such 
a tomb is this torturer of Lazarus buried, who has 
flames instead of a bed, thirst instead of delicious 
drink, sulphur instead of banquets, despair instead 
of dancing. Those confined in prison are said to 
hope for salvation. Here there is no salvation, and 
not even any hope of salvation, but only eternal 
despair. 

God delivered to Ezechiel a discourse not so long 



i8o CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

as terrifying in these words: ^'And say to the south 
forest: Hear the word of the Lord; thus saith the 
Lord God: Behold I will kindle a fire in thee and 
will burn in thee every green tree and every dry 
tree; the flame of the fire shall not be quenched" 
(Ezech. XX, 47). How many cedars, that is, how 
many wicked men are green because of the success 
of fortune and dry through lack of virtues. Hear, 
therefore, you who are green trees and you who are 
dry: the fire will be kindled and the flame of the 
fire shall not be quenched. In hell, whither you are 
hastening, there are no holidays on which the fur- 
nace that has been enkindled may be extinguished: 
there pain is eternal, death eternal, grief eternal, 
and these are to be intermixed with no consolations. 
Day and night the flame, sleepless, ever watchful, 
inextinguishable, will inflict punishment on you; 
you will live for a continual, perpetual death. Take 
the word of St. Augustine for this, who gives the 
following eloquent and solemn warning: "The 
wicked will have a life in the midst of torments; 
but those who live in torments desire, if possible, to 
end such a life; yet no one grants them annihilation, 
so that no one takes away their torture. Consider 
how the Scriptures speak and judge in this matter: 
they do not deign to call such a life by the name life; 
they are unwilling to call an existence in the midst 
of sufferings, torments and everlasting fires life; 
so that the very word life is a term of praise, not of 



CONSIDERATION IX i8i 

sorrow; and whenever you hear of life you do not 
think of tormentS; for to be always in torments is 
eternal death, not life at all. The Scriptures call 
it a second death after this first to which every mem- 
ber of the human race is subject. The second death 
is also called death, and yet no one dies there; I 
should say better and more truly, no one lives there; 
for to live in sufferings is not to live. Therefore, 
that life in torments is not life; that only is life 
which is happy, and it cannot be happy unless it 
be eternal." (Serm. 112, De Martyr. Massa Can- 
dida). This fact he confirms elsewhere as follows: 
"If the soul lives in the eternal punishments by 
which unclean spirits shall be tortured, that should 
be called eternal death rather than life, since there 
is no greater and worse death than when death does 
not die." 

St. Gregory adduces testimony very similar to the 
foregoing, when he says: "In hell the wretched shall 
have death without death, an end without end, be- 
cause there death lives and the end always begins" 
(Mor. Bk. IX, Ch. 49). Innocent gives the same 
warning in these words: "Then death will be im- 
mortal. O death, how much sweeter you would be, 
if you took away life, than when you force one to 
live thus!" The truth is this: the number of years 
in hell is without number, can be counted by no one. 
God Himself in counting it will not find its last year. 
After thousands of millions of years have been 



1 82 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

counted, the same number will remain to be counted; 
and when these, too, have been counted, not only 
will the last not be found, but each will be as if 
it were the first. After the five thousand years 
which Cain has lived there, dying constantly, the 
number of his years of suffering remains still as 
entire as if only today he were thrust down into that 
fiery prison; and after several millions of years of 
this number have been passed, the number itself 
will be no more lessened than if he began to burn at 
that very hour. And although the torments of 
that rich glutton in the Gospel have been going on 
for nigh two thousand years, yet he still burns 
and will burn forever, and he will never obtain for 
his fevered tongue that little drop of water asked 
for long ago. 

Do we hear these things, think of them, and still 
laugh? Perhaps it is a trifling matter to die in 
eternal flames. Here quite rightly may it be asked: 
Where are your tears, O silly mortals? And such 
we certainly are: for a few pennies, for a trifling 
loss we shed big drops of tears; an immense, irrep- 
arable loss we make light of with a burst of merry 
laughter. When summoned before a mortal judge 
we tremble; we are going with rapid steps daily 
even against our will to the tribunal of God, and we 
jest freely on the way. When about to undertake a 
sea voyage we fear the dangers; to an entire eternity 
we hasten laughing. 



CONSIDERATION IX 183 

Most just is the wish of St. Bernard: ^ Would 
that men were wise, would that they were!" And 
to what end do you desire this wisdom, O Bernard? 
'That the image of eternity may be re-formed in us; 
that is, that we may direct present things by wisdom, 
may judge past things by understanding, may attend 
with caution to the last things." 

We have on this point not a wish but a precept 
of St. Paul; for, writing to the Ephesians, he does 
not express a desire but lays a command upon them 
when he says: ''See therefore, brethren, how you 
walk circumspectly, not as unwise, but as wise; re- 
deeming the time, because the days are evil" (Ephes. 
V, 15-16). Circumspectly, carefully, exactly must 
the business of salvation be looked after. Most un- 
wise are they who do not spend profitably this short 
time that is granted them for gaining a happy eter- 
nity, but who squander it upon the most vain and 
paltry pleasures, expecting to purchase heaven by 
jest, by play, by idleness. The time is not to be 
redeemed by gossip, by leisure or by revelings, but 
by frequent prayers, serious labor and constant ap- 
plication. St. Augustine taught that some time must 
be stolen also from worldly business, saying: "When 
someone brings a lawsuit against you, incur some 
loss, that you may have leisure for God and not for 
lawsuits; for that which you lose is the price of 
time. For as you give money and buy bread; so 
lose money, that you may buy for yourself rest and 



1 84 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

time in order to have leisure for God; for this is to 
redeem the time." 

Therefore, an opportunity for doing good must 
be bought at the expense of anything at all, since 
the days are evil. The days of this life are full of 
sorrows, dangers, temptations and sufferings, which 
either take away or lessen the occasion for doing 
good, as says St. Anselm. But if we allow this 
occasion to slip by and our life to pass away in mere 
resolutions of a better life, there will not be a mo- 
ment more in which we may repair our negligences. 
"Our life," says the saint of Nazianzus, "is like a 
market, and when its day is past, there will be no 
more time for buying what you wish. Therefore, 
we must buy now, while it is the market day; we 
must live holily now, while strength remains." 
Ecclesiastes repeatedly inculcates this truth, saying: 
"Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly" 
(Eccles. IX, lo). The Apostle frequently incites 
us by this very motive of time and occasion, in these 
words: "Whilst we have time, let us work good to 
all men" (Gal. VI, lo), because "it is now the hour 
for us to rise from sleep" (Rom. XIII, ii). "You 
sleep," says St. Ambrose, "but your time does not 
sleep, but walks." Well for that man, well for all 
those who not only think of these things, but also 
undertake labor, and live as they will wish to have 
lived when they come to die, and do those things 
which they will rejoice to have done when estab- 



CONSIDERATION IX 185 

lished in eternal life. A slight negligence now be- 
comes eternal loss. What has been once thought 
and done is once and for all eternal. 



II 

THE REWARD OF ETERNAL LIFE 

Life in heaven is truly called life, and is perfect 
life inasmuch as it is animal, human, angelic, di- 
vine. There memory lives by the recollection of all 
the past; the intellect lives by the knowledge and 
vision of God; the will lives and enjoys the good 
of all things, and this without any fear of loss. Simi- 
larly, the appetite lives there, both the so-called con- 
cupiscible and the irascible; all the senses live and 
enjoy their own proper delights. There is no groan- 
ing, not even the least sign of lamentation or grief; 
there is the purest honey of joys, all the gall of sad- 
ness being dispelled. Here, O eyes, be silent; you 
have seen nothing like this life; here, O ears, be 
silent; you have heard nothing like it; be silent, O 
heart, you have thought of nothing like it. This 
life includes all delights, wealth, and honors, and 
the enjoyments of all lives, senses and powers. St. 
Augustine, inflamed with intense desire for this life, 
exclaims: "How great will be the felicity there where 
no evil will exist, no good will be hidden from view; 
where there will be leisure for the praises of God, 



1 86 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

who will be all things in all. ^Blessed are they that 
dwell in Thy house, O Lord: they shall praise Thee 
forever and ever' (Ps. LXXXIII, 5). All the mem- 
bers and organs of the incorruptible body will be 
employed in the praises of God. True glory will be 
there, where no one will be praised through the 
error or flattery of him who praises. True honor 
will be there, for it will be denied to no one deserving 
it, nor conferred on any one unworthy; but neither 
will any one who is undeserving seek it, where none 
but the worthy will be permitted to enter. God, 
who is the author of virtue, will there be its reward, 
for He has promised Himself, a gift than which 
there can be none better or greater. For what other 
meaning have these words that He uttered by His 
prophet: ^I shall be their God, and they shall be my 
people' (Levit. XXVI, 12), than, I shall be what- 
soever things are rightly desired by all: life and 
health, food and abundance, glory and honor and 
peace and all good things? Thus, too, the words of 
the Apostle: ^that God may be all in all' (I Cor. XV, 
28), are rightly interpreted as meaning that He will 
be the end of all our desires. And that blessed city 
will possess in itself this great good also, that no 
one who is lesser will envy one who is greater. As 
in the body the eye does not wish to be what the 
finger is, though the well-ordered structure of the 
whole body contains both." And he adds: "There 
at rest on the eternal Sabbath we shall see that God 



CONSIDERATION IX 187 

is sweet, for we shall be filled with Him, since He 
will be all in alP' (De Civ. Dei XXII. 30). O dear 
truth, true eternity, eternal felicity, my God! 

The author of the book on The Spirit and Soul 
(St. Augustine, Opera, Tom. III. ch. LX) addresses 
this same life thus: ^There is in you no corruption, 
nor defect, nor old age, nor wrath; but uninterrupted 
peace, everlasting glory, eternal joy, continual fes- 
tivity. Truly there is only joy and exultation, and 
the flower and beauty of youth and of salvation 
accomplished. There is in you no yesterday nor 
anything of yesterday, but it is always the same 
today. God is for you salvation, life, infinite peace, 
all things. ^Glorious things are said of thee, O city 
of God, since the dwelling in thee is as it were of all 
rejoicing' (Ps. LXXXVI, 3, 7). There is in you 
no fear, no sadness; every desire passes over to en- 
joyment, since whatever is wished for is at hand, 
and whatever is desired abounds. They shall be 
inebriated from the fulness of Thy house, O God, 
and Thou wilt give them to drink from the torrent 
of Thy pleasure. Since with Thee is the fountain 
of life, in Thy light we shall see light, when we shall 
see Thee in Thyself and ourselves in Thee and Thee 
in ourselves by a continual vision and everlasting 
felicity." 

Yet this everlasting felicity can be gained in a 
very short time and with no great labor by any man 
whatever. Christ, grieving over the people, says: 



i88 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

"I have compassion on the multitude, for behold 
they have now been with me three days" (Mark 
VIII, 2). Most sweet Jesus, you are counting the 
three days in which we are now with you; and why, 
O good Christ, do you not count the eternity of days 
in which you will in heaven perpetually bestow on 
us immortal joy? Behold how easy it is to merit 
eternal glory by brief labor! God counts and sets 
a value upon the least services; He counts the hairs 
growing on our heads, and will He not count the 
drops of blood shed for Him? 

Therefore, we may exclaim with St. Jerome: "O 
how great happiness it is to receive great things for 
small, things eternal for temporal, and to have the 
Lord as our debtor!" But it is hard, you say, to 
suffer so many things daily; it is hard to die, al- 
though all other things may be easy. Why, O Chris- 
tian, do you complain in a vain and childish manner? 
Are you ignorant of the following truth? I know 
that I ascend only to descend: that I live only to 
lose vigor; that I grow up only to reach old age; 
that I live only to die, and that I die only in order 
to be happy eternally. Therefore, "hope in the 
Lord forevermore, in the Lord God mighty forever" 
(Isai. XXVI, 4). I still have in mind St. Augustine, 
who in his sermon on the Words of God says: 
"When the Lord had uttered these words He con- 
cluded thus: ^These shall go into everlasting fire; 
but the just into life everlasting' (Matt. XXV, 46). 



CONSIDERATION IX 189 

This is life everlasting which is promised to us. Be- 
cause men love to live in this world, life is promised 
to them; and because they have great fear of dying, 
eternal life is promised to them. What do you love? 
Life. You shall have it. What do you fear? Death. 
You shall not suffer it. But those who shall be 
tormented in punishments have the wish to die, and 
cannot; therefore it is not a great thing to live long 
or to live always; but it is a great thing to live 
happily" (Serm. 64). 

Therefore, in heaven you shall live and never die; 
there you shall live happily, for you shall neither 
suffer evils nor be able to suffer them. There you 
shall possess what you desire and you shall long to 
possess it; you cannot be deprived of your posses- 
sion, and this will satisfy you. Therefore David, 
putting off all his hunger and thirst, says: ^^I shall 
be satisfied when Thy glory shall appear" (Ps. XVI, 
S). A strange and wonderful saying for a king: 
he has a table well filled with food, and like a servant 
he hopes for satiety, but not from his own table. 
David continually hungered for another's food, he 
thirsted ardently for heavenly nectar. What in fact 
is all the luxury of all kings? The merest poverty 
and the baskets of mendicants, if the heavenly food 
be thought of. ^'Eat," the King of Heaven will say, 
"and drink and be inebriated, my dearly beloved" 
(Cant. V, i). This banquet will have no end, no 
sadness will succeed it; what is today will be eternal. 



IQO CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

Nor does Augustine here refrain from again exclaim- 
ing: '^O life that is truly life, life eternal and eter- 
nally happy, where there is joy without sorrow, 
rest without labor, riches without loss, health with- 
out weakness (and truly there is no such thing in 
this life), abundance without want, life without 
death, continuity without corruption, beatitude 
without misfortune; where all good things are per- 
fected in charity; where there is full knowledge in 
all things and through all things; where the majesty 
of God is seen face to face, and the minds of those 
who gaze are satisfied with this food of life; they 
always see and desire to see; they desire without 
anxiety and are satisfied without weariness'' (De 
Gaudiis Paradisi 7). 

And that you may know, my Christian friend, that 
this glory so exalted, this wealth so sublime, this 
kingdom, can be purchased, hear again the same 
Augustine: '^God says to you: What I have is for 
sale; buy it. What have you for sale? I have rest 
for sale, he replies; buy it. You say to Him: How 
much does it cost? Its price is labor. How much 
labor is that rest worth which has no end? If you 
wish to make a true comparison and to form a true 
judgment, you will be forced to say that eternal rest 
is rightly purchased by eternal labor. This is true; 
but do not fear; God is merciful. For if you had 
eternal labor, you would never attain eternal rest. 
Therefore, that you may at some time obtain that 



CONSIDERATION IX 191 

which you are purchasing, you are not obliged to 
labor eternally, not because it is not worth so much, 
but in order that what is purchased may be pos- 
sessed. Indeed, that rest is worth being purchased 
by everlasting labor; but it is necessary that it be 
bought by temporal labor" (In Ps. 93). Therefore 
let us, my Christian friends, encourage ourselves to 
labor with this same Augustine. 

^When eternal life is promised, let the life which 
we place before our eyes be such that we remove 
from it whatever trouble we suffer here; for we shall 
more easily discover what is not there than what is. 
And yet this life is for sale; buy it if you wish, 
and you will not be much disturbed in this important 
matter on account of the greatness of the price. It 
is worth only as much as you have; therefore, do not 
inquire what you have, but what you are. The 
thing is of equal value with yourself; it is worth as 
much as you are. Give yourself and you will have it. 
Why are you disturbed and troubled? Will you not 
seek yourself? Behold, give yourself just as you 
are and what you are, and you will have it. But 
I am wicked, you say, and perhaps He will not re- 
ceive me. By giving yourself to Him you will be- 
come good. That you give yourself to this pledge 
and promise means that you are good. But when 
you become good, you will be the price of this thing; 
and you will have not only what I have mentioned 
— salvation, security, life, and life without end^—r 



192 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

not only this will you have, but I remove other 
things. For there it will not be possible to become 
weary, to sleep, to feel hunger and thirst, to reach 
maturity and old age; nor will it be possible there 
to be born, where the number always remains un- 
changed. The number which exists is absolute, and 
there is no need that it be increased, because there 
it does not become diminished. Behold, how much 
I have brought forward, and not yet have I said 
what will be there, for this *eye hath not seen nor 
ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of 
man' (I Cor. II, 9). For whence would it enter into 
my heart to say what has not entered into the heart 
of man?" (Serm. 64 De Verb. Dom.) 

And because we have here been conducted to the 
celestial paradise through the books of Augustine 
as through gardens, let us add to the former quota- 
tions the following words of that same eloquent and 
holy doctor: "If we were obliged daily to endure 
all torments, to suffer for a long time hell itself, so 
that we might be able to see Christ in His glory and 
to be associated with His saints, would it not be 
worth suffering every severity, in order that we 
might be ranked as sharers in so great a good, so 
great a glory? Therefore, let the demons lay snares, 
let them prepare their temptations, let fastings 
weaken the body, let rough garments harass the 
flesh, let labors oppress and watchings exhaust it; 
let one man cry out against me, another disquiet me, 



CONSIDERATION IX 193 

let cold cause me to shiver, let conscience murmur, 
let heat burn, let my head ache, my chest be in- 
flamed, my stomach be swollen, my countenance 
grow pale; let my whole body be weakened, my 
life waste away in pain and my years in groanings; 
let corruption enter my bones and well up within 
me; provided only I rest in the day of tribulation 
and ascend to our people who have girded them- 
selves. For what will be the glory of the just? How 
great the joy of the saints, when each face shall 
shine as the sun, when the Lord in His Father's 
kingdom will begin to review His people in their 
separate ranks, and will bestow upon the merits and 
works of each the promised rewards: things heavenly 
for earthly, eternal for temporal" (De Gaudiis Para- 
disi 15). 

Think therefore of the ancient days, and have in 
mind the eternal years. Think on eternity, my 
friend, think, think on eternal punishments and 
eternal joys, and never (safely do I promise it) will 
you complain of any adversity. The following 
words will never fall from your lips: This is too 
severe; this is intolerable; this is too hard. You 
will say that all things are tolerable and easy, and 
never will you be more satisfied with yourself than 
when you are most afflicted. 

John Moschus (Chap. 14) relates that Olympius, 
an old man of remarkable patience, in the hermitage 
of Gerasimus near the Jordan, endured with the 



194 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

greatest patience all kinds of troubles by considering 
things eternal. A certain religious, who was a 
stranger, once met him on the road and not without 
surprise asked him: '^How, pray, my dear Olympius, 
can you exist in this cave in so great heat, among 
stinging insects and swarms of flies?" Olympius 
replied: *^My son, these things are light; I bear them 
that I may escape those other unbearable eternal 
torments. I suffer the stings of these insects, that I 
may escape the worm that never dies ; it is easy for 
him to undergo these heats who fears eternal fire. 
These sufferings of mine, although they are trouble- 
some, are yet brief and will have an end; those 
others will have none." Both truth and wisdom 
favor you, Ol5mipius; you have said this with as 
much wisdom as truth. Would that there were many 
to think as you did; many, also, to suffer as you did. 



Ill 

EPILOGUE TO ALL THAT HAS BEEN SAID 

It is said that Zeuxes, who was very famous 
among the painters of antiquity, lingered over his 
work more scrupulously and longer than befitted so 
excellent an artist; and when he was asked why he 
painted everything so exactly in every detail and 
with so careful and slow a brush, he replied: "I 
paint slowly, because I paint for eternity." We, 



CONSIDERATION IX 195 

too, are all painting for eternity; for whatever works 
we perform have a bearing on eternity, so that we 
can each truly say: "It is for eternity that I write, 
read, sing, pray, labor; whatever I do and say, what- 
ever I even think, is for eternity." But if this is 
the reason for all our labors, let us paint with a 
hand not swift nor negligent but careful, in order 
that we may send to eternity works perfectly elab- 
orated. Certainly they must all be sent there either 
for punishment or for reward. I repeat what should 
be repeated and instilled a thousand times: What 
has been once thought, said and done is eternal. 

St. Gregory says: "With vigilant care must our 
intention be weighed in all our works, so that in 
all that it does it may seek nothing temporal, but 
fix itself wholly in the firm foundation of eternity" 
(Bk. II In lob). Therefore in all your works be 
perfect: pray, study, suffer, struggle, labor for eter- 
nity; live for God, live for heaven, live for eternity. 

Truly does St. Bernard say: "Our works do not 
pass as they seem to do; but all temporal things are 
sown as seeds of eternity. The fool will marvel 
when he shall behold arising from this small seed 
a plentiful harvest, either good or bad according to 
the quality of the sowings. He who believes this 
truth thinks that no sin is small, for the reason 
that he values the future harvest more than the 
sowing." (Serm. 15). 

O dangerous and pitiable madness of the sons of 



196 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

Adam! We have been created for the possession 
of infinite and eternal blessings: why then do we 
basely mold ourselves with our whole affection upon 
models that are fleeting and vain? God has enrolled 
us as heirs of heaven and possessors of eternity: why 
do we so eagerly crave the earth, only to perish 
wretchedly in the coils of our vanities? Let us be 
wise while we may; let us live for eternity, and 
let us advance toward it by long strides daily. The 
road is short and narrow; the end is very broad. 

But wretched that we are, or rather foolish, we 
wish to obtain eternal life, and we do not wish to 
set out on the road to that life; we desire to be 
there, yet we refuse to go thither. There is no one 
who does not long to be happy. As St. Augustine 
says: "There is no one, in whatever rank of life he 
be, who does not desire a happy life. A happy life, 
then, is the common possession of all. But how 
each reaches this life, by what means he strives for 
it, what road he tries in order to attain it, is the 
disputed point. If we should seek a happy life on 
earth, I am inclined to think that we cannot find it, 
not because what we seek is bad, but because we 
do not seek it in its proper place. One man says: 
Happy they who lead a soldier's life. Another denies 
this and says: Happy they who practice agriculture. 
Still another denies this and says : Happy they who 
gain popular fame in law and plead cases. Again, 
another denies this and says: Happy they who are 



CONSIDERATION IX 197 

judges and have power to hear and decide lawsuits. 
Yet another denies this and says: Happy they who 
traverse many regions, learn many things and amass 
great wealth. You see, my friends, in all that multi- 
tude of careers not one pleases all, and yet a happy 
life pleases all" (Serm, 112, De Martyr. Massa 
Candida). 

Happiness, therefore, is not to be looked for here, 
but is to be sought elsewhere, and can be found only 
by a good death. Even the wicked desire a good 
death, although they avoid a good life. To die well 
brings felicity; to live well entails labor. The one 
is not obtained without the other. Eternity depends 
on death, and death on a good or bad life. Choose 
now: to have perished once is to have perished eter- 
nally. 

Not many years ago a man of noble blood and of 
keen mind, but belonging to the new religion, was 
asked what he thought of the austere life of religious 
men and the freer life of others. He replied: "I 
would prefer to live with the latter, to die with the 
former." Cleverly said indeed; but he could have 
made the following reply as befitted a Christian: 
"I wish to live with those with whom I should like 
to die." Thus, too, the wish of Balaam was not 
bad: "Let my soul die the death of the just" (Numb. 
XXIII, 10). But Balaam's prayer would have been 
wiser and more advantageous to himself had he 
said: "Let my soul live the life of the just that it 



198 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

may die the death of the just." For, whoever lives 
the life of the good will also die the death of the 
good; likewise, whoever lives the life of the wicked 
will also perish by their death, and this once and 
forever and eternally. 

A centurion named Lamachus once chided a sol- 
dier for a mistake he had committed. The latter, 
to atone for his fault, promised that he would not 
again be found guilty of such an act. Whereupon 
the centurion said: "In war, my good man, one may 
not sin twice." In death, alas, one may sin not even 
once; for such a sin as this is irrevocable. Once 
dead you are always dead; having once died a bad 
death you are forever damned. You will never be 
able throughout all eternity to correct this death, to 
escape this damnation. 

"The words ^I did not think' are shameful in the 
mouth of an emperor," says Iphicrates. More 
shameful and far more injurious are the following 
words when uttered by a Christian: "I did not think 
that there was so much difference between a chaste 
and a dissolute life; I did not think that a whole 
eternity depended upon it. I certainly did not think 
that I should die so soon." Alas, how drowsily we 
attend to the business of eternity! And yet this life 
of ours is mortal and has not even a moment of 
which it can be certain. But while it is absolutely 
certain that we must pass hence, yet the hour is 
most uncertain. When that hour shall arrive, it 



CONSIDERATION IX 199 

will seem that you have not so much lived as that 
you have in a moment flown to death. You are a 
tenant, not a possessor; a house has been rented, not 
given to you. Although you do not wish it, you shall 
depart; for we have not here a lasting city. 

Baruch, the divine prophet, asks: "Where are the 
princes of the nations, and they that rule over the 
beasts that are upon the earth, that hoard up silver 
and gold, and there is no end of their getting?" 
(Baruch III, 16-18). Do they not still retain their 
kingdoms and their glory? And the prophet an- 
swers himself: "They are cut off and are gone down 
to hell, and others are risen up in their place" 
(Baruch III, 19). They have departed, he says, 
for they are tenants, not possessors. Their houses 
are rented to others, while they are cast out and 
banished to hell. But if it should be asked: "Where 
are the princes of heaven, who inhabit that lofty 
empyrean space?" it cannot be said in reply: "They 
are cut off, and others are risen up in their place"; 
but they remain in the celestial kingdom, and never 
will they be cast out by any successors. 

"Let us crown ourselves with roses," say men of 
dissolute and profligate life. Indeed it is with roses, 
whose beauty and fragrance vanish in a single day, 
that they crown themselves, and they too are des- 
tined to perish likewise. But the blessed are 
crowned with gems and precious stones, whose 
beauty does not perish. On the head of that mar- 



200 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

vellous woman of the Apocalypse is a crown, not of 
roses from the garden, not of gems from the sea, but 
of stars from heaven. Therefore, as the heavenly 
orbs are incorruptible, so those who inhabit them 
are fixed and immortal. ^'But the just shall live for 
evermore" (Wisd. V, i6). All earthly things are 
fleeting, those of heaven are everlasting. Here labor 
that is not long wearies us, there eternal rest re- 
ceives us. And why do we seek rest before the end 
of labor? We are still in the arena, in the dust, in 
the race-course. We must sweat, rush forward, 
struggle. 

Excellent is this saying of St. Gregory: "If we 
consider the nature and greatness of those things 
which are promised to us in heaven, all the posses- 
sions of earth become vile in our estimation. For 
what tongue is capable of expressing, what intellect 
of comprehending, how great are the joys of that 
supernal city? And they are these: To be present 
amid the choirs of angels, to appear before the glory 
of the Creator with the blessed spirits, to gaze upon 
the countenance of God face to face, to behold 
boundless light, to be disturbed by no fear of death, 
to rejoice in the gift of everlasting incorruption. 
But the soul is on fire after those things of which 
she has heard, and desires to take her stand at 
once in that place where she hopes to rejoice without 
end. But it is possible to attain to great rewards 
only through great labors. Whence also Paul, that 



CONSIDERATION IX 201 

remarkable preacher, says: ^No one will be crowned 
unless he strive lawfully' (2 Tim. II. s). Therefore, 
let the greatness of the rewards delight the mind, 
but let not the contest of labors terrify it. We must 
advance and continue to advance. Not the rough- 
ness of the road, but the blessed eternity of our 
native land must be considered." (Hom. 37. In 
Evang.) 

The same holy doctor expresses this idea re- 
markably well in the following words: "This is wont 
to be the special mark of the elect, that they under- 
stand how to make the journey of this present life 
in such a way, that through the certitude of their 
hope they know that they have now come to high 
places, since they see that all things which flow past 
lie beneath them; and through love for eternity they 
trample upon everything which in this world is ele- 
vated. For this is the meaning of what the Lord 
through the prophet says to the soul that follows 
Him: ^I shall raise thee above the heights of earth.' 
There are, as it were, certain lower parts of the 
earth, namely, losses, insults, poverty, abjection, 
which even the lovers of the world do not cease to 
trample upon, in their endeavor to avoid them as 
they walk along the level surface of the broad road. 
But the heights of the earth are the acquisition of 
property, the flatteries of inferiors, abundance of 
riches, honor and distinction of offices; and he who is 
still advancing along the road of low desires regards 



202 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

these things as high, for the reason that he considers 
them great. But if once the heart is fixed on 
heavenly things, it soon discovers how low are those 
objects which seemed high. For as he who climbs 
a mountain looks down for a little while upon certain 
objects lying below, and then directs his steps 
further on to higher places; so when a man strives 
to fix his attention on the highest things, and has 
by this very exertion discovered that the glory of 
the present life is nothing, he is elevated above the 
heights of earth; and what he formerly, when fixed 
in the lowest desires, believed to be above him, 
afterwards as he makes progress in the ascent, he 
finds are below him.'' (Moral, Bk. XIII, ch. 14.) 

Not out of keeping with this reasoning of blessed 
Gregory will be the following golden lesson of St. 
Augustine: ^That which must sometimes be sacri- 
ficed of necessity should be voluntarily given up for 
an eternal reward." Moses lived a long time and in 
good health, and at length ceased to live. Mathusala 
lived longer, but he, too, at length departed from 
among the living and died. This is the epitaph of 
us all: And he died. We all die and flow away like 
water. The soul is immortal and eternal; it will 
live forever, either for reward or for punishment. 
Here on earth we cast the die, the irrevocable die of 
eternity. O happy eternity, O eternal happiness! 
How happens it that we think of you so rarely, so 
slightly, so cursorily? How happens it that for 



CONSIDERATION IX 203 

your sake we do not labor more, are not more solici- 
tous? O my God and my all, open our eyes, that 
we may learn what eternity is, how immense it is, 
how happy or miserable it is. Thou hast created 
us for Thyself, Thou hast created us for eternity. 
Because Thou art eternity Thou didst wish, didst 
order, didst decree to make us sharers of Thy eter- 
nity. Grant that we may spend this moment of 
time virtuously and holily, that in it we may labor 
for eternity, may suffer and struggle for eternity, 
and that we may utter the same cry to all, and 
thereby save as many souls as possible that are 
likely to perish for eternity. Listen, Christians; 
listen, pagans; listen, kings; listen, princes; listen, 
my country; let the whole world listen: No security 
is great enough where eternity is at stake. 

O long, O deep, O abysmal, O eternal eternity! 
Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house, O Lord, 
in the eternal mountains; they will praise Thee 
through infinite myriads of ages. 

When Moses at the approach of death was com- 
mending Israel to God and invoking blessings, he 
bade farewell last of all to the race of Aser in these 
words: "Let Aser be blessed with children, let him 
be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his 
foot in oil. His shoe shall be iron and brass. As 
the days of thy youth, so also shall thy old age be. 
There is no other God like the God of the rightest. 
He that is mounted upon the heaven is thy helper. 



204 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

By His magnificence the clouds run hither and 
thither. His dwelling is above, and underneath are 
the everlasting arms/' (Deut. XXXIII, 24-27.) 
Thus, God stretches forth the arms of His power 
over an immense tract of heaven, and beneath these 
arms of His all this world, all time, and all the 
things of this world are contained, hasten this way 
and that, and are guided. Thus, God from the be- 
ginning, nay, from the eternity of His predestination, 
was the dwelling of all the good, whom He encom- 
passes and'protects, as if by some eternal and con- 
tinual arms. Ascend, therefore, and enter this 
dwelling of thine, O soul that dost struggle here with 
earth and mud; stretch thyself forth and ascend to 
Him that is mounted upon the heaven, to thy God 
who dwells in the highest mountains of eternity. 
Established there in safety, look down upon the 
earth and see how trifling are those things which 
here either entice thee by the desire they arouse or 
terrify thee by the fear they inspire. Behold, how 
paltry are all things which are contained in this 
point of earth. Behold, in comparison with God, 
in comparison with eternity, how vain, how unstable, 
how fleeting are all created things; nay, how all 
things are a great nothing. Therefore, seek the one 
supreme and immense good; esteem all else as of 
little value. Strive after God, expand in God. 
Trample under foot whatever charm under the sun, 
under the moon allures thee, whatever terror 



CONSIDERATION IX 205 

threatens thee. Think on things eternal, and con- 
stantly turn over in your mind the following saying 
of St. Jerome: "No labor ought to seem hard, no 
time long by which the glory of eternity is gained." 
An evil spirit which had once taken possession of 
a camel, upon being brought into the presence of 
the famous St. Hilarion, began to rage in a terrible 
manner, as if it would devour the holy man on the 
spot. To whom Hilarion said: "You do not terrify 
me, O demon, though in so large a body; whether 
in a fox or in a camel, you are one and the same to 
me." Soon this raging camel fell down before him, 
and all its former ferocity subsided into a ridiculous 
tameness. Such are all the flatteries, all the temp- 
tations of the world, all its bugbears. What do you 
hope for? What do you fear? What do you love? 
"He that is mounted upon the heaven is thy helper." 
He encompasses you with His eternal arms; and 
with these same arms He so tightly confines your 
enemies who either entice or terrify you, that He 
could crush them all with one movement, like flies. 
Does the pleasure of lust or gluttony allure you? It 
is trifling, despise it; think on eternal pleasure. Do 
threats terrify you, sufferings overwhelm you, does 
contempt afflict you, disease attack you, secret pov- 
erty weary you? All these things are trifling, and 
the more bitterly they assail you, so much the briefer 
is their attack. Look down upon these things and 
look up to heaven, think on eternity. "Whatsoever 



2o6 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

shall befall the just man, it shall not make him 
sad" (Prov. XII, 21). Even though the heavens 
should fall, the ruins will smite him undaunted. 
Therefore, is the just man never sad? Therefore, 
does no affliction befall him? By no means: ^^Many 
are the afflictions of the just" (Ps. XXXIII, 20). 
But the just consider all evils of this kind as trifles, 
they regard that as the only real evil which is eternal 
and which separates from God, as sin and the pen- 
alty of sin, eternal death, separate. ''We look not 
at the things which are seen, but at the things which 
are not seen," says the doctor of the gentiles (2 Cor. 
IV, 18). These only are truly great, whether they 
are good or evil. 

But we who so rarely look at the things which 
we see not, what grown up or rather aged children 
we are! We grieve over a piece of ice which we 
could not hold and which has fallei;! from our hands. 
We stand dazed over shadows and in our dreams 
we have deep wisdom; we pine away over those 
things which will not only pass in a little while, but 
which are passing even now. Not only will the 
figure of this world pass, but it is already passing, 
it is in its very passage. And as all those good 
things which we here enjoy are unstable; so all the 
evil things by which we are oppressed are not last- 
ing. Those things only which are not seen possess 
an unchanging state, know no end, admit of no ter- 
mination, are ignorant of change, are fixed, im- 



CONSIDERATION IX 207 

movable, eternal. I repeat a thousand times the 
warning of St. Jerome, and thousands of times 
should it be repeated: ^^No labor ought to seem 
hard, no time long by which the glory of eternity is 
gained.'' 

Symphorian, a Christian youth, after undergoing 
no ordinary scourging with rods, was being led to 
his final punishment at Autun. He was met on 
the way by his mother, who, not with dishevelled 
hair, nor beating her breast, nor crying out in 
womanish fashion, but comporting herself as befitted 
a Christian heroine, exclaimed: "My son, my son, 
remember eternal life; look up to heaven and behold 
Him who reigns there. Life is not being taken from 
you, but is being exchanged for a better." The 
youth, encouraged by these words of his mother, 
fearlessly offered his neck to the sword. 

We, too, my Christian friends, are now being led: 
we are all going to death, the final punishment, but 
with a slower step. All the inhabitants of heaven 
cry out to us: "Remember eternal life, look up to 
heaven and behold Him who reigns there." Chris- 
tian, whoever you are, show yourself here a Sym- 
phorian; do not shrink from labor and struggle, but 
courageously endure even the sword, if need be, for 
Christ. Here be brave, here show fortitude, and 
when you are tempted, when you grieve, are sad, 
are afflicted, when you are despised, ridiculed, de- 
famed, when you are robbed and tormented in vari- 



2o8 CONSIDERATIONS ON ETERNITY 

ous ways even more than Job, imitate Symphorian 
and a thousand other Christians, and with steadfast 
heart give utterance again and again to this cry: 
^^ Whatever is here is but for a little while, is brief; 
farewell, all things; thee only do I greet, O 
Eternity." 



ETERNITY IS WITHOUT END 



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